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Dozens of protesters shook police barricades and chanted “drop the charges” outside UC Berkeley’s Krutch Auditorium Monday as student conduct hearings began for 32 pro-Palestinian activists who took over a campus building in April.

Inside, university officials launched their case against graduate student Roberto Hernandez, who faces five charges ranging from disturbing the peace to assaulting a university police officer.

The hearing was scheduled to end 5 p.m. Monday but ran until 6:30 p.m. and is still incomplete. The proceeding will reconvene as early as today and the student conduct committee hearing the case is expected to recommend a ruling about a week after the hearing ends.

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Residential and Student Service Programs Harry Le Grande will consider the committee’s recommendation and make a final decision on punishment.

Hernandez and the other 31 students who will take part in the hearings face sanctions ranging up to expulsion.

The 32 activists, who will participate in hearings through the end of October, are among 79 protesters who took over UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall April 9, demanding that the nine-campus University of California divest from Israel.

In June, the Alameda County District Attorney dropped criminal charges against the protesters, but the university pursued student conduct charges against the 41 students who took part. Nine accepted an “informal resolution,” agreeing to a one-semester probation, leaving 32 to face formal hearings.

Last week, student activists raised concerns about a decision by professor David Zusman, committee chairman, to close the Hernandez hearing to the public and press and move it away from the center of campus to Krutch Auditorium in the university’s Clark Kerr facility.

Zusman blocked public access to the hearing Monday, citing concerns about student privacy, but allowed a handful of reporters into the room on the condition that they omit in press accounts the names of student witnesses other than Hernandez.

Student activists criticized the decision to exclude members of the public.

“The public also has a right to be there,” said Hoang Phan of Students for Justice in Palestine, an activist group which spearheaded the Wheeler Hall takeover.

Phan said protesters outside Krutch Auditorium on Monday pushed police barricades to the ground several times as a symbolic protest against the closed hearing.

Activists also raised concerns, last week, about the composition of the hearing committee.

University officials informed student lawyers Thursday that the panel would be made up of three professors. Protesters said at least one student should serve on the panel.

The final committee included two professors and an undergraduate student.

After lengthy wrangling about the composition of the committee and the legality of the evidence at the start of the hearing, UC Berkeley Director of Student Judicial Affairs Neil Rajmaira called Dean of Students Karen Kenney as the first witness.

Kenney testified that the university caught wind of the planned takeover before April 9 and warned student activists in advance that they would face punishment if they disrupted academic activity.

She also disputed activists’ claims that the university has cracked down on pro-Palestinian students because of their political beliefs.

Rajmaira drove home the point, arguing that the case “would have been conducted in the same manner if Mr. Hernandez were part of the Cal Rugby team.”

An undergraduate student testified for the university that the protesters disrupted her class in Wheeler Hall. English professor Ian Duncan, who was running a seminar on the third floor of the building April 9, countered that the disruption was minimal.

A pair of university officers allegedly assaulted by Hernandez will take the stand when the hearing resumes, and then the defense will present the remainder of its case.

Hernandez said the first day of hearings was “a tad bit more fair” than he expected and that he looks forward to presenting his case.

So the current mayor of Berkeley, Shirley Dean, wants to consider relocating and rebuilding the UC Memorial Stadium.

This is a truly lunatic notion for several reasons.

First, UC Memorial Stadium is the property and responsibility of UC, not the city of Berkeley.

Second, the present location of the stadium is fine and dandy. It is on the campus. It is built on bedrock (not mudflats) and it is accessible to students on foot.

The UC Memorial Stadium was built back in 1928, some 74 years ago. Any local neighborhood bitches about congestion and traffic on fall football Saturdays from anyone younger than 95 years of age are ridiculous. Football, foot traffic and automobile traffic were there long before any of the current residents were even born, let alone old enough to want to complain about it. If area residents don't want to live near UC, they can just move a few miles north to Albany or El Cerrito.

The stadium is in a fine bedrock location to withstand future seismic events. For those Golden Bear home games, the stands are rarely even one-third full. The students can always flee the stands and occupy the field if there is an emergency. Wildfires are highly unlikely in the lower Strawberry Canyon area: It is filled with tennis courts and swimming pools.

Perhaps the mayor of Berkeley should devote her energies to some of the real and continuing problems of the city: crime, traffic, the school system and keeping the public park toilets supplied with toilet paper.

OAKLAND — Oakland Athletics bench coach Ken Macha, one of the most sought-after managerial candidates in the major leagues, has been contacted by the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs for their open managerial jobs.

The A’s, working out Monday in preparation for the AL division series against the Minnesota Twins, said the organization granted permission to both franchises to meet with Macha, but that it would be sometime after the team’s best-of-five series.

“At this point, the schedule is kind of crowded,” Macha said. “Perhaps I’ll get a chance to talk with them after this series.”

Macha is second in command behind Oakland manager Art Howe, and the two were big league teammates for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the mid-1970s. Macha also played in the majors for Montreal and Toronto.

Late in spring training, he was approached by the Boston Red Sox after they fired manager Joe Kerrigan, but the A’s denied Macha permission to speak to Boston.

“He gets the young guys going and stays on them to play,” Howe said. “I’m glad we didn’t lose him this year. He makes the Energizer Bunny look slow.”

Macha was Pittsburgh’s second choice after Lloyd McClendon two years ago. Macha has interviewed for five managerial jobs in all — Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Toronto and twice with Anaheim.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people before and nothing worked out,” he said. “Hopefully this is the year that something works out.”

Macha has connections to Detroit. He is close with team president and general manager Dave Dombrowski. They worked together in the Expos’ organization.

“He’s a guy mentioned that is mentioned with almost every opening that becomes available,” Dombrowski said.

The 52-year-old Macha is under contract with the A’s until through the end of the World Series. He was named bench coach Oct. 30, 1998, and this is his 13th season on a major league coaching staff. That includes stints with Montreal and California.

The Tigers fired manager Luis Pujols on Monday and the Cubs fired interim manager Bruce Kimm on Sunday, before the final game of the season but he managed anyway.

The first two calls A’s president and general manager Billy Beane received Monday were from the Cubs and Tigers.

“My gut feeling is that the interest in Kenny is peaking right now,” Beane said. “His demand is at the top of everybody’s list. He would have been very difficult to replace (in the spring). We told them that we’d like to reserve this week so we can play the Twins, but the next week or 10 days we can work something out.

“We’re trying to be fair to both Ken and the teams. I expect from any of the managerial openings this year, we’ll get a request for Ken.”

Macha is a Pittsburgh native. He had a career major league batting average of .258 with 98 hits, one home run and 35 RBIs.

“He’ll be missed,” said A’s equipment manager Steve Vucinich, who first got to know Macha as a player when Vucinich was visiting clubhouse manager. “He’s a good baseball man.”

At least 139 Berkeley High School juniors will have to retake a state exam if they hope to earn a diploma next year, according to administrators of the California High School Exit Exam.

The exact number of students who failed at least one portion of the test is not yet known. But administrators said that 59 percent of Berkeley students failed the math portion of the state exam while 43 percent failed the English section.

The scores were released Monday, and are part of a two-year-old exam that attempts to hold high school students accountable for basic math and language skills.

The test was first given to ninth- and 10th-graders in 2000. To the 10th-graders the test was a trial run as the scores had no consequence. But for the ninth-graders, the Class of 2004, those who passed didn’t have to take the test again. Students in the Class of 2004 will be the first who must pass the test to graduate.

Despite many failing scores, Berkeley students exceeded the state average and were consistent with other students in Alameda County.

Students must pass both English and math sections to graduate, and students who fail either section are given seven opportunities to retake the test during their junior and senior years.

Local school officials gave differing perspectives of the test scores.

Berkeley superintendent Michele Lawrence is concerned that high stakes tests, such as the state exit exam, fail to improve student performance and instead will burden local school districts.

“Will the state now allow and pay for fifth-year seniors? Do we just pass them out the door without a diploma?” Lawrence asked.

She found some consolation in the fact that the city’s 10th-graders beat out the statewide average. “I’m marginally pleased in relation to the state results,” she said.

In 2000, 50 percent of county students passed the math portion, while 67 percent passed the English section. Berkeley students scored even better: 64 percent passed math, while 76 percent passed English.

Although students scored higher in 2000 the statistics are deceiving. Ninth-graders who passed the test in 2000 did not have to retake it. Thus, the 10th-graders who took last year’s tests had either never taken the test or had failed it the year before.

According to statewide results released by the Department of Education:

n Nearly 460,000 students took the test in March 2001 and last May.

Overall, 10th-graders performed better on the language arts portion of the test than in math. Sixty-four percent of the students who took the test in both years passed the English-language arts section, while only 52 percent passed the math portion. Forty-eight percent of the students passed both sections.

n Less than 20 percent of 10th-graders who speak little or no English — more than 63,000 kids — passed the test.

n Eighty-seven percent of special education students didn’t pass the test.

The exam was created in 1999 as part of Gov. Gray Davis’ plan for raising standards and accountability.

The split in the Sierra Club over Measure P, proposed new building height restrictions, should be understood in context. The Sierra Club has a complex, democratic structure. The split occurred in one, subregional committee, which came within one vote of opposing Measure P. The Sierra Club, nationally and statewide, and the San Francisco Bay Chapter, have long-standing, policies of opposition to sprawl and pollution. The Club supports:

n Public Transportation.

n Pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly communities.

n Compact, mixed use centers whose residents can reach many activities on foot and can conveniently travel to other centers by transit, thus reducing automobile use.

n Preservation of open space.

n Social justice.

n A range of housing and transportation options.

Measure P conflicts with these policies. It would reduce the heights currently permitted along major streets with frequent AC Transit service. The reduction would be so much that rehabilitating deteriorated properties along streets like San Pablo and University might become financially not feasible. These are the very locations where we might see construction of the small but affordable units that low -income citizens seek. Low income is not limited to those at the poverty level. It includes retirees wanting to sell a house but remain in Berkeley, and starting wage earners who have not yet put aside a down payment for a larger home. The heaviest burden would fall on those parts of the city where minority residents live and small businesses struggle.

Measure P would not alter at all the heights permitted in existing, residential neighborhoods. What it would do is add delay and cost to owners seeking to increase height over 28 feet. We and many other long-time Sierra Club members believe that Measure P is bad from both environmental and social justice standpoints. There is a world of difference between resisting change in an urbanized area and preserving scenic wilderness.

SAN FRANCISCO— The San Francisco 49ers returned Monday from their bye week a bit wary of the winless opponent they will meet next.

The St. Louis Rams can have that effect on a team and the 49ers say they’re not fooled by the surprising 0-4 record the Rams will bring to San Francisco on Sunday.

“Certainly, it’s a different record than we anticipated them being when you look at your schedule prior to the season,” 49ers coach Steve Mariucci said Monday. “But they’re a good team and they’re going to come out swinging. Until somebody knocks them off, they’re the defending (conference) champion.”

The Rams won their second NFC championship in three years last season and have became an obstacle the 49ers couldn’t overcome in the NFC West on their climb back to playoff competition.

San Francisco tried to do something about it during the offseason. The 49ers added speed and bolstered their defense through the draft and free agency.

St. Louis has beaten the 49ers six consecutive times, and San Francisco has been pointing toward ending that streak this week at home since losing to the Rams in St. Louis last December.

But instead of being the significant hurdle to San Francisco’s progress, the reeling Rams have stumbled into the NFC West basement. The 49ers (2-1) have an opportunity to bury them there this week, but they still respect their West Coast foes.

“The Rams have beaten us six straight times,” tackle Derrick Deese said. “You can’t take them lightly. The Rams are the Rams and you kind of got to go by what they’ve done to you, and they’ve beaten us.”

The Niners, after a week off to heal several injuries, would seem to be catching the Rams at a good time. St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner, last year’s NFL MVP, was lost Sunday with a fractured finger and the Rams also will be without Pro Bowl tackle Orlando Pace this week.

But Niners defensive coordinator Jim Mora said that’s no reason to think the Rams can’t regain their offensive explosiveness at any time. “It would be ludicrous for anyone to think you’d count the St. Louis Rams out,” Mora said. “Those guys are winners and they’ve got great pride. I mean, they’re scary. They can still get you in a lot of different ways.”

The Niners received some good news Monday when offensive lineman Matt Willig returned to practice after missing two games following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

San Francisco appears to be leaning toward rookie Eric Heitmann as their new starter at left guard to replace Dave Fiore. Willig, however, gives the team valuable depth as the top reserve along the line and a viable alternative if Heitmann struggles.

Fiore was placed on injured reserve last week after tearing knee ligaments in San Francisco’s 20-10 victory over the Washington Redskins on Sept. 22 that left the 49ers in first place entering their bye week.

They can take a major step toward remaining there Sunday against the Rams.

“We have to find a way to win back the division,” Mariucci said. “So, that’s the first thing we’re trying to accomplish. (The Rams) have too many veterans, and too many Pro Bowlers and too many prideful guys to just let this season slip away. We have to play well to beat these guys, believe me.”

As expected, Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation Sunday forgiving a $1.16 million fine the Berkeley Unified School District owed the state for filing late paperwork in 1999.

The legislation, sponsored by state Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, pours the money into consulting services and reform efforts within the district.

The law ships $700,000 of the $1.16 million to the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance team, a state-sponsored fiscal adviser that has been working with Berkeley Unified for almost a year.

FCMAT must use the money to develop a five-year district improvement plan by July 2003 covering several areas: instruction, financial management, facilities management, personnel management and community relations.

The district must use the remaining $460,000 to implement reforms, with FCMAT providing a report on implementation by June 2005.

The late paperwork was a staff development form. District officials have acknowledged negligence in failing to meet an October 1999 deadline to file the document, but have argued that the $1.16 million fine was draconian.

I chuckled over the predictably hysterical letter against Measure P from “Berkeley Design Advocates” (Sept. 25 Daily Planet Forum). This group has no credibility. By my recollection, it has endorsed every blockbusting, out-of-scale development proposal made in Berkeley in recent years.

Having never met a high-rise it didn't like, BDA has helped foster the pro-developer climate in which Measure P became necessary. The group apparently exists solely to promote job security – or retirement security – for architects who can't win commissions for the contextually appropriate projects that Measure P will promote.

But more importantly: The governor last week signed AB 2292, a vaguely written bill that was strongly opposed by California cities. When it becomes law next year, AB 2292 will make it significantly harder for cities to ever again downzone any parcel of land.

If Berkeley residents want to maintain control over our neighborhoods' density and livability, our most prudent course would be to pass Measure P on Nov. 5 – while we still can. We can always choose to later revise density upwards; but we will soon lose the option to revise it downwards.

ALAMEDA — Almost everything has gone right for the Oakland Raiders, yet coach Bill Callahan is aggravated with one aspect — all the senseless penalties.

“I think we’re a long ways yet (from perfection),” Callahan said Monday, a day after the Raiders (3-0) routed the Tennessee Titans 52-25. “There are areas we need to shore up, the penalty situation for one.”

The Raiders had four major penalties Sunday.

Longtime center Barret Robbins was called for two personal fouls, including one in the second quarter in which he appeared to be poked in the eye, then reacted by throwing a punch at Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.

The drive resulted in a field goal, not a touchdown.

Then, in the third quarter, Robbins was whistled for unnecessary roughness, and offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy picked up a personal foul. By then with such a lead, the drives were meaningless, but the mental mistakes still have Callahan fuming.

“It was completely and totally uncalled for, for us to lose our poise and discipline,” Callahan said. “It’s intolerable to put us behind as a team when we have an opportunity to score. It was aggravating. That was addressed and will be addressed.”

Consistent with Berkeley City Council’s practice of international politicking and with anti-war discussions nearby cities, council is considering asking the President to go through the United Nations to resolve Iraq’s military threat.

The resolution, which is being written by councilmembers Linda Maio and Maudelle Shirek, would put city support behind by U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and her effort to prevent a U.S. first strike.

Lee’s push, formalized as House Concurrent Resolution 473, requests that President George W. Bush go through the United Nations, and advocates a “peaceful” solution.

The Berkeley resolution, which Maio said is still being drafted and would be ready for council consideration next week, is merely symbolic and carries no action.

Last week, the city of Santa Cruz started the latest round of community-based anti-war protest when its City Council unanimously passed a resolution denouncing a United States-led attack of Iraq. Tonight, Oakland’s City Council is slated to consider support for Lee’s anti-war resolution.

“We want to set an example for young people not to kill each other in the streets,” said Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel, sponsor of Oakland’s peace resolution. Nadel also said war with Iraq could have negative impacts on the already slumping U.S. economy.

Berkeley’s proposed resolution continues a series of city objections to U.S. policy since Sept. 11, 2001.

Last month, City Council passed a resolution criticizing the federal Patriot Act as an infringement of civil rights. Last October, council passed a resolution calling for a quick end to bombing in Afghanistan.

Maio said she expects the latest resolution to win the support of her colleagues at the Oct. 8 City Council meeting.

I read the front page article in the Sept. 24 Daily Planet with concern, as I began to realize that the grandparents of the young girl were attempting to blame the police officer for the accident.

Please believe me when I say I have no particular ax to grind in favor of the Berkeley police, or any other police department. In fact, I would be inclined to believe the worst of the police, in general, given my own experiences as a pedestrian and bicyclist (as well as occasional motorist) in Berkeley.

The fact that this 7 year old was out riding her bike, without a helmet, in a city, totally disregarding the most elemental rules of safety (look both ways before you cross a street, use the crosswalks and intersections, cars are fast and may not always see you, etc.) does not speak well for her temporary guardians. The child has paid for her ignorance with an extremely hard lesson. I just hope she does not also learn that when something bad happens to you, blame someone else.

I was not there, so I cannot say for sure that the officer was driving within the speed limits. But the fact that she is alive is a good indication that he was. In addition to thanking god, perhaps the grandparents might also thank the police officer for his quick reflexes.

I read the front page article in the Sept. 24 Daily Planet with concern, as I began to realize that the grandparents of the young girl were attempting to blame the police officer for the accident.

Please believe me when I say I have no particular ax to grind in favor of the Berkeley police, or any other police department. In fact, I would be inclined to believe the worst of the police, in general, given my own experiences as a pedestrian and bicyclist (as well as occasional motorist) in Berkeley.

The fact that this 7 year old was out riding her bike, without a helmet, in a city, totally disregarding the most elemental rules of safety (look both ways before you cross a street, use the crosswalks and intersections, cars are fast and may not always see you, etc.) does not speak well for her temporary guardians. The child has paid for her ignorance with an extremely hard lesson. I just hope she does not also learn that when something bad happens to you, blame someone else.

I was not there, so I cannot say for sure that the officer was driving within the speed limits. But the fact that she is alive is a good indication that he was. In addition to thanking god, perhaps the grandparents might also thank the police officer for his quick reflexes.

The Web site that received national attention for its controversial monitoring of Middle East sentiments on college campuses has decided to stop posting personal profiles of university activists.

Daniel Pipes, president of Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum – which runs www.campus-watch.com – said Monday that the posting of dossiers that included a profile of a Palestinian sympathizer from UC Berkeley “distracted from the underlying issues we wish to raise.”

The organization seeks to promote fair and open debate on events in the Middle East but recently drew criticism as a heavy-handed approach to Palestinian supporters.

Two weeks ago, the group began listing universities where the forum found sentiments could be biased against the United States and Israel. UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Stanford University were among those listed.

Also noted on the list were the names of eight academics, including Snehal Shingavi, a UC Berkeley graduate student who teaches a literature class that examines the Palestinian uprising.

The class became controversial earlier this year when the course description came out reading “conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections.”

Shingavi and other national scholars on the site’s watchdog list could not be reached for comment.

The Middle East Forum lists were still posted on the Internet Monday, and Pipe gave no indication of when the lists would be removed.

But Pipe said the decision will not affect the group’s efforts to monitor college campuses for fair exchange about U.S. Middle East policy.

VIENNA, Austria – U.N. weapons inspectors demanded the right to roam freely around Saddam Hussein's palaces and other suspect sites when they opened talks with the Iraqis Monday on the logistics of a possible return to Baghdad.

Chief inspector Hans Blix, leading the closed-door meetings with an Iraqi delegation, said the inspectors were operating under the assumption they would be able to go anywhere, anytime if they return to Iraq for a fresh assessment of the country's nuclear, biological and chemical programs.

The dispute came to a head after the Bush administration repeatedly accused Iraq of blatantly violating U.N. resolutions requiring Baghdad to disarm. Washington threatened to unilaterally remove Saddam from power because more than a decade of international pressure had failed to win Iraqi compliance.

When President Bush made an impassioned plea for tougher U.N. action at the General Assembly last month, Saddam switched course and pledged unconditional access to sites across Iraq. But in recent days Baghdad has rejected any new U.N. resolutions to broaden and toughen the inspection regime. Iraqi resistance has thrown into question whether the eight sprawling presidential palaces — up to now off-limits to surprise visits — would be open to renewed inspections.

“We're telling the Iraqis we don't want any limitations on our access,” a senior diplomat close to the talks said on condition of anonymity.

The issue of palace inspections and some other contentious matters would require amending the most recent U.N.-Iraq agreement on inspections. While the Vienna meetings have addressed those topics, a decision on changing the sanctions regime would have to be made by the U.N. Security Council once Blix reports back on Thursday.

Under a deal U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cut with Baghdad in early 1998, the inspectors' access to eight so-called presidential sites encompassing a total of 12 square miles was restricted. The deal prevented inspectors from carrying out surprise visits to the sites, which include Saddam's palaces. The deal also created a team of international diplomats to accompany inspectors when they did enter.

An 18-year-old UC Berkeley student fell from the roof of his three-story apartment building on the 2400 block of Haste Street at 10:24 a.m. Saturday morning. According to police an employee of a nearby restaurant heard a thud and found the victim laying on the pavement beside the building. The victim is currently at Eden Hospital. Police did not have an update on his condition. There were no signs of foul play or drug use, police said.

n Drug Bust

Narcotics officers found 5 grams of rock cocaine and packaging for cocaine sales at a home on the 1200 block of Hearst Street Friday. Gary Lee Gordon, 28, was arrested for possession of cocaine with intent to sell.

n Gunshots Fired

Gunshots were fired on the 1200 block of Haskell Street at 2:25 p.m. Saturday. According to police, neighborhood witnesses saw a group of people quickly disperse after they heard several shots fired. Police investigators found 9 millimeter casings on the block as well as bullet holes in a nearby tree.

University officials say the experiment will eliminate costly and time-consuming travel by researchers.

Richard Rinehart, MOAC project manager, said online access to museum collections has been limited and subscription-based in the past.

“Most material in museums is all locked away in vaults. It has been hidden from us by the very institutions we hire to preserve and protect it for us. Our ultimate goal is to open it up and make it available to the public,” Rinehart said.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is among the museums available online and more museums are expected to join the ranks, Rinehart said. There are more than 2,000 museums in the state.

MOAC offers high resolution, thumbnail images of collector's items, descriptions about the collections and information about artists and objects. A central server enables researchers to search across all collections at once.

The two-year experiment is financed with a $500,000 grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Coast Guard officials announced they have completed months of work offshore by divers and engineers to recover some 85,000 gallons of oil from an old wrecked ship before wintry weather sets in.

Standing on a San Francisco pier beside the hired marine salvage barge that served as a floating island and support for teams of divers entering the SS Jacob Luckenbach, Lt. Michael Lebsack estimated that 500 people altogether worked to trace the oil that for a decade had been mysteriously killing birds along the coast.

It turned out to be from a ship that sank 17 miles west of the city nearly a half-century ago.

Work that began in late May was done on Sept. 26, he explained, months after the initial plan had indicated. “We thought, heck, we'll be done in 30 or 40 days,” he recalled.

But difficult and dangerous conditions in the frigid water 175 feet below the surface, along with a bout of rough seas early on, kept stretching the schedule further and further toward fall. The thick oil had to be warmed for underwater pumping teams to do their work.

Ed Ueber, who heads the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, thanked all the state and federal agencies involved in the unprecedented effort, but particularly the six divers.

“They really risked their lives to go down there,” he said.

Ueber estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 seabirds died over the years in a region that ranks among the nation's most precious for bird and mammal diversity.

“It is a place of beauty, and it is a place of wonder,” Ueber said.

Coast Guard officials estimated about 30,000 gallons are still inside the wreck, but are sealed off and “unlikely” to leak out again.

Bay Area officials present

Olympic transportation plan

SAN JOSE –Bay Area transportation officials today presented their plan for transporting the athletes and spectators around the region if San Francisco is chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is scheduled to choose either San Francisco or New York City as the U.S. candidate city for the 2012 games in early November.

“We're just four weeks away from the U.S. candidate city election in Colorado Springs,” Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee President Anne Cribbs said at a briefing in San Jose this morning.

Cribbs said that traffic impact is a prime concern of local residents.

“The number one question I always get asked about the 2012 Olympics and the bid is what about the traffic,” according to Cribbs.

The Bay Area is actually in better shape that several cities that have recently hosted the games when it comes to available mass transit.

The transportation plan for the Olympics includes using existing and planned mass transit systems such as CalTrain and BART and dedicating the Bay Area's carpool lanes for transporting Olympic athletes and officials.

Atlanta transported its athletes and officials in a similar fashion.

“We didn't need to worry about one more thing, jumping on a subway and getting to our competition and our practices on time,” 1996 synchronized swimming gold medallist Nathalie Bartleson said.

Spectators will be transported to the Olympic events almost exclusively on public transportation under the BASOC plan.

“The spectators will arrive on public transportation for the simple reason that we're not going to give them any parking. We're going to use the Pacific Ball Park model,” Heminger said.

After the U.S. Olympic Committee chooses the U.S. candidate city, the International Olympic Committee will select the host city in 2005.

FRESNO — At least two people died and dozens of bus passengers were injured Monday night after a Greyhound driver’s throat was slashed and his bus overturned while traveling 70 miles-per-hour on Interstate 5 near western Fresno.

“This was not an accident,” Lt. Johnson said. Authorities said one man, possibly aided by another, rose from their seats and attacked the driver with a knife.

There were at least two people confirmed dead, one of them the driver, and several others injured, authorities said. Emergency crews are being flown to the scene of the crash.

The attack and crash left the bus rolled over on its side in a field about 50 feet off the side of I-5 at about 8:35 p.m. The bus overturned near Coalinga, a town about 30 miles west of Fresno, as it traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The man who allegedly attacked the bus driver had been arrested, Lt. Johnson said. There was no word late Monday on the motive might have been for the attack.

The freeway was closed to northbound traffic by 10 p.m. at the spot of the accident along the heavily traveled route.

The Fresno Sheriff’s Department was leading the investigation late Monday.

As emergency crews arrived, they quickly found two dead, 10 people critically injured, and dozens other with various levels of minor injuries from the crash.

The bus came to rest in a remote portion on Interstate 5 near western Fresno. There was no immediate word if other vehicles were involved as the bus crashed.

The California Highway patrol was busy at the scene, directing traffic away from the crash site. A CHP spokesman confirmed that one man had been arrested in connection with the attack, and there was some concern the alleged attacker may have had an accomplice.

“That’s also under investigation as to whether there were more than one,” said CHP spokesman Tom Marshall.

Gov. Gray Davis was busy signing bills in Sacramento and was in contact with emergency officials regarding the crash. He asked state officials to work with local investigators in looking into the attack and crash, said Steve Mavigilo, Davis’ spokesman.

SAN FRANCISCO — Cargo ships laden with Christmas presents lay at anchor offshore, waiting to be unloaded, and trucks with fresh produce lined up outside West Coast ports Monday after dockworkers were locked out in a dispute that could cost the U.S. economy $1 billion a day.

West Coast shipping lines said they will keep the ports closed until the longshoremen agree to extend their expired contract. But the 10,500-member dockworkers union said it will not budge until the lockout ends.

With both sides hardening their positions Monday, it appeared only some kind of face-saving outside intervention would let cargo flow across the waterfront again.

“If there was ever any doubt that mediation is necessary, that question has now been answered by the events of the last week,” said Tom Edwards, a spokesman for the shipping lines.

The Bush administration said that it is concerned about the effect on the struggling U.S. economy but that it has no immediate plans to break the impasse by declaring a national emergency.

The head federal mediator has invited both sides to Washington, D.C., for a Thursday session. Shipping lines have accepted. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said it was leaning against such a move.

The bulk of the nation’s imports from China and Japan come through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the nation’s busiest. The labor crisis comes as importers scramble to bring in merchandise for the Christmas shopping season.

Representatives of the shipping lines and dockworkers planned to meet Monday afternoon.

A frail labor peace between the shipping lines and the longshoremen collapsed Sunday when the dockworkers were ordered off their jobs indefinitely at all 29 of the nation’s major West Coast ports.

The two sides are at odds over pensions and other benefits, as well as cargo-handling technology that the union fears would wipe out jobs.

West Coast ports handled more than $300 billion in cargo over the past year.

Over the weekend, about 30 ships waiting to be unloaded dropped anchor outside the ports of Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., according to the Pacific Maritime Association said. Seventy other vessels already in port waited to loaded or unloaded.

Economists warned that a drawn-out work stoppage will ripple through the U.S. economy. Stores will not have the merchandise they need. Produce could rot on the docks. Assembly lines may come to a halt for lack of parts.

Hawaii relies on shipping for about 90 percent of its goods.

For truckers such as Salvador Nunez, the effect was more immediate. He drove to the Port of Los Angeles from a small town near the Mexican border with a load of alfalfa sprouts and hay. Unable to unload, he waited several hours before turning around for the six-hour ride home.

Nunez was out $125 in transportation costs and could not collect his usual $400 for the load. If the work stoppage goes on for more than a week, “it will be too long,” said Nunez, who supports a wife and two children. “I’ll be out of money.”

Pacific Maritime Association president Joseph Miniace, representing shipping lines and sea terminal operators, ordered the lockout Sunday and accused the union of disrupting work by understaffing operations and dispatching workers not skilled for specific jobs. The union said it was strictly following safety codes.

Jim Spinosa, president and chief negotiator for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, responded: “The ILWU will not be intimidated. We will not extend the contract.”

The last time an economic emergency was declared and the U.S. government intervened in a work stoppage under the Taft-Hartley Act was 1978, when President Carter unsuccessfully tried to end a national coal strike. No such action is planned yet by the Bush administration.

“If it goes on for even a short period of time, it’s a problem for the economy,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “We’re monitoring it closely.”

The Bush administration is working to get both sides to the bargaining table with federal mediators. But Spinosa said: “We don’t need outside people to come in.”

Under the last contract, a full-time longshoreman makes an average of $80,000 a year, while the most experienced foremen average $167,000.

The talks began deteriorating during the summer, and over Labor Day weekend the union stopped approving rolling extensions of the contract, which officially ended July 1.

SAN JOSE – On a typically sultry summer afternoon in the nation’s capital, eBay attorney Andrew Kumamoto walked into a conference room to talk patents with a Virginia inventor.

That discussion, held to gauge eBay’s interest in acquiring patents held by Tom Woolston and his company, MercExchange, has led to a David-and-Goliath confrontation that some consider nothing more than an attempt to pick eBay’s pocket.

But if Woolston wins in court, the inventor just might change how the online auctioneer does business.

Woolston believes the patents cover nearly every aspect of eBay’s operations, including the very procedure millions of people use to buy and sell everything from stuffed bears to aircraft. The technology has quickly made eBay, on paper at least, one of the Internet’s great success stories.

EBay believes Woolston revised his initial claim after seeing eBay’s success, so that his patent would cover what eBay was doing.

Woolston denies any such manipulation. An electrical engineer with years of experience in the military and the CIA, he says he came up with his online auction concept while a law student, long before Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder, began seriously thinking about auctions and community.

“I was there with the technical know-how and ability to see it first,” he says bluntly. “We won’t be bullied.”

The legal drama may ultimately play out before a federal jury in Virginia, but the pretrial script already includes bitter arguments over intellectual property law, with millions of dollars at risk for eBay.

The growth of online commerce has spawned dozens of lawsuits over intellectual property. One highly publicized case involved online bookseller amazon.com, which was granted a patent for the process that allows customers to complete purchases with a single mouse-click.

Berkeley’s biggest, bawdiest and barest festival went off without a hitch Sunday.

The seventh annual “How Berkeley Can You Be?” parade once again showed that Berkeley’s penchant for the absurd is matched only by its outlandish sense of humor.

Parade revelers – many in elaborate costumes, others wearing no clothes at all – pranced up University Avenue to Civic Center Park before a thick crowd of admirers.

“This is great,” said D.R. Faust, who came with this wife all the way from Fresno to see the parade. “It’s a great testament to Berkeley that it can celebrate itself in such a fun, unpretentious way.”

Many of the floats mocked the city’s reputation for political activism.

The biggest crowd reaction was for a band of students posing as Starbuck’s Community Relations Department. Decked out in the company’s green uniforms, the revelers promised new outlets throughout Berkeley, while spectators hissed and jeered.

A group calling itself Christian Ladies Converting Dykes sang a musical number espousing the virtue of sleeping with men.

Not all Berkeleyans were in on the jokes, however.

A new entry this year, People Eatin’ Them Animals - a satire on an animal rights organization - decorated a float with what appeared to be the carcass of a German Shepherd. While some spectators looked on in horror, “PETA” members handed out unusual looking pieces of lean meat still attached to bone that they insisted was either Shepherd or Pekinese.

“A few people threatened us with physical violence along the way,” said “PETA” organizer Ian Curtis.

Life didn’t get any easier for the canine connoisseurs after the parade ended. When they tried to resume serving meat from their float now parked at Civic Center Park, Berkeley Animal Control Services, working on a tip from a concerned citizen, threatened to shut them down.

“We explained everything to them and now they’re eating it too,” said Curtis, who refused to reveal the actual source of the meat.

When Berkeleyans weren’t making fun of themselves, their usual target was the potential war with Iraq.

Different marchers urged President George W. Bush to consider alternatives to battle.

A local brewer shouted out, “Make beer not war,” while a nudist held a sign, “Tits Not Targets.”

The parade formed to celebrate Berkeley has grown into one of the best exhibits of art cars in the country. More than 80 decorated cars sputtered through Berkeley during the festivities, said art car organizer Harrod Blank. He noted that the parade is poised next year to surpass the Houston Art Car Parade as the biggest art car gathering in the United States.

Daniel Macchiarini, a San Francisco artist who drove one of art cars, said the beauty of the parade extended far beyond the decorated vehicles.

“This is the spirit of Berkeley - to be able to invent yourself anyway you want,” he said.

As author of the Berkeley coffee initiative, I must respond to some comments in the Daily Planet regarding the initiative. First, Dorothee Mitrani-Bell, who charges $1.75 for a cup of coffee at her Berkeley restaurant, La Note, claims she would have to charge 75 cents more for a cup of certified coffee. If she brewed 12 cups from a pound of certified coffee (and that’s very strong coffee), and charged an extra 75 cents per cup, she would recoup an extra $9.00 per pound. Certified coffees, however, are very price-competitive with high quality non-certified coffees. A pound of organic coffee generally costs only about 50 cents per pound more wholesale. I ask Ms. Mitrani-Bell to explain why she would need to charge an extra 75 cents per cup.

Second, Krystell Guzman, director of coffee programs for Jeremiah’s Pick Coffee, claims that certification is costly for farmers. Fair Trade certification, however, is free. And it’s so easy that there is a huge supply of Fair Trade coffee. The problem is that there aren’t enough buyers. The key is increasing demand for certified coffee, which is exactly what this initiative would do. Does Ms. Guzman prefer the status quo: the environment suffers and small farmers struggle for survival while coffee companies enjoy record profits?

Finally, Fred Foldvary suggests that we should simply rely on education to improve the status quo. Would he prefer to scrap all environmental and labor laws and simply rely on education and the good intentions of corporations? We know how well voluntary methods work now: not that many cafes in Berkeley brew certified coffees. It would be nice if we could rely simply on education, but that is just not the way society functions in reality. We use laws to protect everything we value, such as clean air, clean water, endangered species, human rights, and fair labor practices. This initiative is no different. For example, we as a society did not ask gas stations to sell unleaded gas. Rather, we banned leaded gas and required unleaded. Why allow a damaging product at all when a better alternative is available?

Jason Gesser wasn’t going to miss this game. No sir. But the Golden Bears sure wish he had.

Wearing a flak jacket over injured ribs, Gesser threw for 431 yards and four touchdowns to lead Washington State past Cal, 48-38, on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. The Cougars (4-1 overall, 1-0 Pac-10) scored 29 points in the third quarter to take the lead, then scored the game’s last 10 points after the Bears tied the score in the fourth quarter.

“Ever since I knew I was hurt, I knew that I would play this game,” said Gesser, who was injured during a win over Montana State two weeks ago. “I played with a cracked rib last year and I knew I could play with it this year. I had no question that I was going to play today.”

Gesser played the entire game despite taking several big hits from Cal defenders, including a Tully Banta-Cain blindside shot just after releasing a 41-yard pass to Jerome Riley that set up Washington State’s last touchdown. Gesser hit Devard Darling on a six-yard slant on the next play for a 45-38 lead, then the Cougars converted a Jason David interception into a 48-yard field goal to put the game away with two minutes left.

Gesser completed 28-of-44 passes and led the Cougars to scores on seven of their final nine drives. His outstanding day overshadowed Cal quarterback Kyle Boller’s personal-best 371-yard, three touchdown passing performance. Boller set a career high with 29 completions but also threw two interceptions, both coming when he was hit as he threw.

The Bears (3-2, 0-1) took advantage of two Washington State miscues to get tie the game in the fourth quarter. With a 38-28 lead, the Cougars couldn’t pick up a single yard in two tries, turning the ball over on downs at the Cal 27. Cal wideout Jonathon Makonnen proceeded to score an 11-yard touchdown on a quick pass when tackle Chris Murphy knocked down the only defender in the way.

The ensuing kickoff went Cal’s way when true freshman Wale Forrester stripped the ball clean from Washington State’s Devard Darling and took it down to the 9-yard line. The Bears had three shots to take the lead, but Cougar defensive tackle Jeremey Williams stuffed Boller on a draw on third down and Cal settled for a 38-38 tie on a 20-yard Mark Jensen field goal.

The Bears looked strong early in the game, but Gesser eventually got the Washington State offense going and started to strafe the Cal secondary.

With Cal leading 14-0 late in the second quarter, Gesser and the Cougars finally came to life and scored their only touchdown of the first half, an 11-yard pass to wideout Scott Lundy. Cal defensive tackle Lorenzo Alexander blocked the extra point attempt.

But Cal answered right back with a five-play touchdown drive, with Boller completing three passes for 57 yards including a 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tom Swoboda with 33 seconds left on the clock. Even when Gesser took just three plays to bring the Cougars within field goal range and Drew Dunning nailed a 42-yarder to cut the halftime deficit to 21-9, it looked as if the Bears were on track for a win in the Pac-10 opener.

Gesser kept his rhythm in the second half, however, and led the Cougars to 29 points in the third quarter to take a 38-28 lead. It was the most points Cal has surrendered in one quarter since 1973, while all the Bears could muster was a 3-yard touchdown lateral from Boller to left tackle Mark Wilson on a trick play.

“We knew going in that we were thin in the secondary,” Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said. “Anytime you get spread out by four and five receivers, you know you’re going to have some matchup problems.”

While the new players did fairly well, with McClesky deflecting two passes early in the game, Washington State had three wide receivers with more than 100 yards in receptions. Riley led the way with seven catches for 139 yards, with Darling and Mike Bush also breaking the century mark.

“Unfortunately, [Washington State’s receivers] made plays on the ball when they had to and I didn‘t,” said Cal cornerback James Bethea, who was victimized on a touchdown pass to Bush. “I can’t just slip and fall down and let him make the catch. That’s crap.”

Cal got some outstanding performances from its own wide receivers as well. Makonnen had seven catches for 136 yards and a touchdown, and senior LaShaun Ward atoned for numerous drops last week with an outstanding one-handed catch for the Bears’ first touchdown on the game’s first drive.

Notes: With his extra point after Cal’s first touchdown, Jensen moved to No. 7 on the Bears' career scoring list with 194 total points... Washington State’s second-quarter touchdown was the first score the Bears have given up in that period this season... The Bears have outscored their opponents 122-21 in the first half this season... Cal guard Jon Geisel left the game with a knee injury in the first half and did not return. Tedford said he would be re-evaluated today... The two teams combined for 1050 total yards, them most in a game involving Cal since the 1996 Aloha Bowl against Navy.

Berkeley Unified’s Board of Education decided last week to leave an anti-discrimination policy in place that may conflict with federal law.

The 1992 school board policy, designed in part to cut off Boy Scouts’ access to public schools, prohibits any group that discriminates on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation or a whole host of other factors to use school facilities for meetings.

The Boy Scouts of America forbid homosexuals to hold leadership positions, disqualifying the organization from use of school property.

The board’s policy appears to conflict with the federal “No Child Left Behind” law signed by President George W. Bush in January which, among other things, requires school districts to provide the Boy Scouts with access to facilities.

Failure to comply, the law reads, will result in the termination of federal education funds, which flow to Berkeley Unified to the tune of $6 million to $8 million a year.

District officials contend that the 1992 board policy includes just enough wiggle room to ensure that Berkeley Unified is in compliance with the “No Child Left Behind” law.

The wiggle room is found in the details of the board policy.

The policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, “or any other basis made unlawful by federal, state or local laws.” School officials, in an interpretive twist, argue that the “any other basis” phrase could extend protection to the Boy Scouts.

But Board of Education member Ted Schultz acknowledged that the board did not originally intend the “any other basis” phrase to protect a group it sought to exclude.

“It certainly was not the intent,” he said.

UC Berkeley law professor Malcolm Feeley said the Boy Scouts provision of No Child Left Behind is one in a long line of largely symbolic measures added to federal law. Feeley said he does not expect the district to lose federal funding if it keeps the 1992 policy in place.

“My prediction is it will be conveniently forgotten so that everyone can walk away and do what they want,” he said.

U.S. Department of Education spokesman Jim Bradshaw offered no immediate opinion on whether the board’s 1992 policy would conform with the No Child Left Behind law.

“We would have to take a look at that and review that language,” he said. “But we would hope and expect that organizations would follow the intent and spirit of the law.”

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said the district may revise the policy in January, when it plans to overhaul its entire policy book, if compliance issues linger.

Board member John Selawsky said he would not be troubled by letting Berkeley Boy Scout troops onto district property since most of the local scout leaders have denounced discrimination against gays.

“They have publicly disavowed the national Boy Scouts’ homophobic policy,” he said.

But local scout leaders, who were forced to leave the schools after the board passed its 1992 policy, said they do not intend to push for renewed access anytime soon.

“We’re not pushing that because we understand its a sensitive political issue,” said Alan Houser, scoutmaster for Berkeley Boy Scout Troop 24.

Houser said the district has allowed Boy Scouts to drop off posters at schools this year, but he is unsure if anyone is actually hanging them up.

Houser said he would like the opportunity to add a Boy Scouts handout to the “fistful of flyers” that students receive in September, but that the district has denied the request.

Lawrence said she has forbidden the practice not because of the Boy Scouts’ stance on homosexuality, but because she wants to cut down on the overall number of flyers students receive.

“We just are bombarded,” she said, adding that she has denied several groups in addition to the Boy Scouts.

Houser said the flyers would help reverse a significant drop in the number of public school students joining the Boy Scouts since 1992, when Berkeley’s troops were forced to leave the public schools.

School Board Director John Selawsky is asking parents to join him in seeking more funding from Sacramento for the Berkeley Unified School District. But what is BUSD spending our money on now? With a $100 million budget and 9,100 students, that comes to approximatley $10,000 per pupil, not including the hundreds of millions in construction bonds taxpayers have voted for.

The current budget passed by the school board has been disapproved by the county. This is after the Board hired a consulting firm for 5-6 months ($15-$20,000 per month, more?), permanently hired a consultant at $110,000 per year and spent $700,000 on new software, all of which was supposed to fix the problem. The district's errant finances are a chronic, recurring problem. One current board member ran eight years ago on the grounds that as an economist he understood budgets, and would work to prevent school closures. The situation doesn't seem to have changed much in eight years. Before the School Board asks citizens to work for more funding for BUSD, shouldn't BUSD get its finances and its financial systems in order?

OAKLAND – It took fewer than four minutes for rookie Phillip Buchanon to show he’s ready to be an NFL starter – perhaps at three positions.

Buchanon had an interception on the first play of the game that was overturned by an instant replay challenge. But he scored on a punt return and handed off on another punt returned for a touchdown as the Oakland Raiders routed the Tennessee Titans 52-25 Sunday.

Buchanon, a cornerback by trade, got an interception that counted in the fourth quarter, leading to the Raiders’ final score. He also finished with seven solo tackles.

Oakland (3-0) has looked versatile, too. Its first win of the season came behind the running game, the second on a superb passing performance by Rich Gannon, and this one was highlighted by stellar special teams.

Rod Woodson had three interceptions, including one he returned 82 yards for a touchdown, making him the NFL’s career leader in interception return yardage with 1,339.

Gannon was 29-of-39 for 381 yards and four touchdowns, and Jerry Rice had seven catches for 144 yards and a touchdown. Rice became the NFL’s career leader in yards from scrimmage, passing Walter Payton.

The Raiders, coming off their bye week, beat Tennessee (1-3) for the first time since the Raiders were in Los Angeles and the Titans were the Houston Oilers, in 1994.

Titans quarterback Steve McNair finished 33-for-47 for a career-high 398 yards and two touchdowns, but threw four interceptions. He completed a 49-yard TD pass to Justin McCareins with 11:39 remaining that the Raiders challenged, arguing the ball hit the ground, but the TD stood.

Buchanon, the team’s top draft pick out of national champion Miami, was promoted to starter at left cornerback Wednesday to replace Pro Bowler Charles Woodson, who has a broken right shoulder.

He had some college friends in the Coliseum stands for his debut on defense – and he had a big day, just as he did when filling in for an injured starter as a sophomore for the Hurricanes. In that game, he made 10 solo tackles and four pass deflections against Florida State.

Buchanon with the Titans going right at him early, picked off McNair’s pass on the first play, but officials reversed the call, saying he did not have possession. The Titans got the ball back, and after a false start penalty, Woodson intercepted and scrambled 18 yards to the Titans 17. Gannon then hit Charlie Garner on a 17-yard TD pass with only 21 seconds elapsed.

Gannon was impressive again, two weeks after throwing 64 passes and finishing with 403 yards in a win at Pittsburgh.

Buchanon returned a Tennessee punt 83 yards for a 14-0 lead later in the period. When Tennessee punted again, Buchanon caught the ball and handed it to Terry Kirby, who ran 79 yards to the end zone.

Titans star Eddie George, who’s been playing with a tender left foot, missed most of Tennessee’s first scoring drive, but came back in to score on a 1-yard run. He finished with just 26 yards on 11 carries.

George has had two of the best games of his career against Oakland, but this wasn’t one of them. The Raiders’ revamped defense, featuring 10 new starters now that Charles Woodson is out, kept pressure on McNair most of the day.

Vijay Lakireddy, 32, remains free on $500,000 bond after a federal judge postponed his sentencing in connection with a family sex smuggling ring.

The son of convicted felon and Berkeley real estate magnate Lakireddy Bali Reddy, Vijay Lakireddy was scheduled to be sentenced today on one charge of immigration fraud. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken postponed sentencing until Nov. 18 but did not give an explanation for the delay.

Lakireddy will be the fourth member of his family incarcerated in connection with an immigration scheme to import Indian girls for sex and cheap labor at family businesses.

Reddy, the alleged ringleader, was sentenced to eight years in jail, while his brother and sister-in-law were each given lighter punishments for aiding the scheme.

Last June, Lakireddy agreed to a plea bargain with prosecutors. He admitted to falsifying a visa for an Indian man, Venkateswara Vemireddy, who posed as the father of two Indian girls living illegally in the United States. In return, prosecutors dropped more serious charges that Lakireddy helped import the girls for sexual purposes.

The conviction calls for a maximum penalty of five years, but attorneys for both sides have asked Judge Wilken to accept a two-year sentence and $2 million fine.

However, the judge retains discretion to adjust the punishment. In the case of Lakireddy’s father, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong tacked on an additional two years to a six-year deal struck by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Diana Russell of Women Against Sexual Slavery hopes that Judge Wilken will ignore the terms of this plea bargain as well. “Two years seems preposterous to me,” said Russell. “They have all gotten away with very light punishments.”

Police began investigating the family in November of 1999 after a 17-year-old Indian girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a downtown apartment owned by Reddy.

The girl’s 15-year-old sister survived the gas poisoning, caused by a blocked heating vent, and told federal authorities that she and her sister were flown to the United States and forced to have sex.

Currently Reddy’s brother Jayprakash Lakireddy is serving a one-year sentence at a halfway house for immigration fraud, while his sister-in-law, Annapuma Lakireddy is completing the last month of a six-month home detention sentence for the same crime.

In January, Parsad Lakireddy, the brother of Vijay Lakireddy, is scheduled to go to trial on charges ranging from immigration fraud to intent to engage in sex with a juvenile.

Students for Justice in Palestine organizer Hoang Phan wrote a Sept. 25 letter to the editor questioning Regent David Lee’s qualifications to be a UC Regent because of his lack of knowledge on the Israel-Palestine conflict. To Mr. Phan, of course, being knowledgable means agreeing with everything on his group’s propoganda site, while being ignorant means agreeing with anyone else. Regardless of whether Lee is knowledgable or not, I fail to see why such knowledge is relevant to the role of UC Regent. Perhaps Mr. Phan was confused. UC stands for University of California. To be a Regent for the University of California, one needs to be knowledgable about the goings-on in such places as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSF, but not such places as UC-Israeli Checkpoint or UC-Suicide Bus Bombing.

Construction of playing fields in the bayfront Eastshore State Park appears more likely after a City Council vote last week put the Council’s support behind a regional drive for park fields.

Berkeley’s decision to suppport a new joint powers board, which is lead by the city of Albany, had been in doubt. For environmental reasons, council had opposed the state plan which calls for three to five fields on the Albany Plateau. Council instead wanted to leave the plateau as natural habitat, but has since eased up. And without Berkeley’s support, the state would have been less willing to include fields in any section of the park.

Ballfields are rarely found in state parks. In order for the state to make an exception, cities must form a partnership to oversee construction and maintenance, said Don Neuwrith, state park principal planner.

“Nothing happens unless a joint powers authority happens,” he said.

El Cerrito, Richmond and Emeryville are now considering joining the partnership.

The planned 8.1-mile state park that stretches from Emeryville to Richmond has created a rift between environmentalists and playing field advocates. Environmentalists say the park, and especially the Albany coastline, should be preserved as natural habitat, while field users say the park is the region’s best chance to deal with a field shortage that keeps hundreds of Berkeley kids from playing organized sports.

Although the fields are planned for Albany, Berkeley council members still hope to persuade the state to consider Berkeley sites..

“You could build up to six fields in the North Basin Strip,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who added that the site, located west of Gilman Street, would allow for more playing fields and would have less environmental impact than at the Albany Plateau.

Neuwirth, though, said the Albany site was chosen after careful consideration. “The access to the North Basin Strip is terrible,” she said.

Because the land is directly on the water, the area is more suitable for aquatic recreation, Neuwirth said. Plans for the strip call for unearthing underground Schoolhouse Creek then constructing a boat launch, a youth hostel and a shoreline promenade.

The final park plan is scheduled to be submitted to the state in November.

Contrary to Tom Bates’ cynical response, I can only applaud Mayor Shirley Dean’s suggestion that UC take a real look at stadium alternatives before sinking untold millions into retrofitting decrepit Memorial Stadium. Considering the alternatives, the university ought to seriously consider an adaptive use of Golden Gate Fields, a place with substantial existing facilities, great freeway access, lots of parking and a 10 minute shuttle bus ride from campus. The horse track’s owners would certainly entertain an inventive business partnership with UC athletics and the net gain to both parties could prove substantial.

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - No. 4 Cal women’s soccer team saw a five-game unbeaten streak come to an end with a 3-1 loss to Hartford Sunday afternoon at Al Marzook Field. The Golden Bears’ record dropped to 6-2-1, while the Hawks improved to 4-4.

Hartford struck first at the 7:42 mark with a goal from Sandra Kayulu on an assist from Tini Lyng.

Less than a minute later, Cal freshman forward Tracy Hamm dribbled through a crowd and tallied her seventh goal of the season to even the game at 1-1.

The two teams stayed knotted at one until Hartford’s Erin Mucha broke the deadlock in the 50th minute. Katharina Lindner provided an insurance goal for the Hawks in the 64th minute.

Field hockey drops second straight

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Cal field hockey squad suffered its second straight loss Sunday afternoon against top-ranked Maryland, 3-1. The Golden Bears fell to 6-3 for the season as the Terrapins boosted their record to 10-1. Junior Nora Feddersen scored the lone goal for the Bears in the 58th minute to prevent the shutout.

Maryland’s Jackie Ciconte’s first career goal proved to be the game-winner in the second half as Cal was outshot by the Terrapins, 31 to the Bears’ two.

Ciconte’s goal in the 49th minute gave Maryland the 2-0 edge. The Terps followed two minutes later as Colleen Barbieri fed Carissa Messimer at the left post to get one by Knapp.

Bears scratch out sweep of Oregon schools

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Freshman Alicia Powers’ scrambling kill in the fifth game enabled the University of Cal women’s volleyball team to upend Oregon State, 3-2, (21-30, 30-28, 30-25, 28-30, 24-22) Saturday night at Gill Coliseum. It was the Bears’ (11-1 overall, 2-1 Pac-10) second five-game match in a row after defeating Oregon, 3-2, Friday night. The win over OSU (5-7, 0-4) also broke Cal’s four match losing streak to the Beavers and it was the first time the Bears have defeated both Oregon and Oregon State on the road since 1999.

Duffy leads Cal women at Stanford

STANFORD - The Cal men’s cross country team finished eighth among the 30 teams with 249 points at the Stanford Invitational Saturday afternoon at the Stanford Golf Course. The Cal women placed 14th among the 33 teams with 412 points.

Freshman Bridget Duffy led the way for the Cal women, grabbing 42nd in 22:22. Sophomore Lindsey Maclise had the Bears next best result, finishing 70th.

Junior Carlos Carballo led the way for the Cal men, finishing 20th in 24:22. Senior Martin Conrad was the Bears’ next fastest runner, taking 53rd in 24:59.

ORANGE – Little Christopher Ibarra’s mother wants her son disconnected from the machine keeping him alive so he can rest in peace. His father, who authorities say violently shook him into a coma, is holding out for a miracle recovery.

At stake is more than 1-year-old Christopher’s existence. The boy’s father could be charged with murder if his son dies.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Behn is to hear the parents’ requests on Monday. He has taken away the right of both to decide Christopher’s fate and appointed an attorney to represent the boy’s legal rights.

“Both have something to gain. They both have something to lose,” Patricia Egan, a professor of psychology and social work at the University of California, Riverside, said of the parents.

“The question is where is the best interest of the child.”

Orange County district attorney spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder would not say whether a decision has been made to seek murder charges against Moises Vasquez Ibarra if the baby dies.

There have been few cases similar to Christopher’s.

One, in 1996, involved a New York man’s effort to keep a hospital from ending life support for the infant daughter he was accused of shaking. Although a judge granted the hospital’s request, the girl was instead moved to a Catholic hospital where she later died. The father was later convicted of manslaughter.

“I think it will hold the attention of everybody what the judge decides in this case. ...It will set a precedent for that final decision: When to let go,” said Egan, a former social worker.

Ibarra, 24, has pleaded innocent to one count of child abuse and one count of corporal injury to a child stemming from the Dec. 17, 2001, incident that left the boy in a coma.

Few involved in Christopher’s plight will discuss the case. Most of the court records have been sealed or labeled confidential because of the boy’s age. Numerous telephone calls by The Associated Press to the attorney for Christopher’s mother have not been returned. One attorney for the father would not comment, the other did not return a call.

The couple’s roommate told police he heard Ibarra arguing with Christopher’s mother, Tamara Sepulveda, followed by a loud thud coming from their bedroom.

According to a police report, Ibarra then came out of the bedroom carrying a limp Christopher and asked the roommate to call 911.

At first the couple told police the baby was crying, then began to have trouble breathing. Later, Sepulveda told police Ibarra shook Christopher and threw him into his crib.

The father was arrested three days later, after doctors told investigators Christopher had suffered shaken baby syndrome.

A Social Service Agency report, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, said the baby was “neurologically devastated,” unable to breathe on his own or respond to pain. The report quoted a doctor as saying, “The only thing he is doing is gasping, otherwise we would have pronounced him brain dead.”

Sepulveda told the judge in May she wanted to end life support for Christopher and allow him “to go to heaven.” Ibarra objected, saying through an attorney the only reason he’s refusing to cut off like support is his love for his son.

“I am holding out hope for a miracle, as is my client,” Assistant Public Defender David Dworakowski told the Times.

As a recent immigrant, I wonder why so many Americans insist on mispronouncing the names of two Middle Eastern countries. Since they certainly do not say “Eyes-rael”, why do they say “Eye-raq” and “Eye-ran” when this is so wrong?

In a town that’s supposed to be a center of learning and one with a large multiracial content, it’s unforgivable to find such carelessness. After all, this isn’t a community of hicks who go around declaring themselves “genuWINE” Americans, so why the awful mispronunciation?

Is this because too many Americans are such overgrown adolescents that they like doing things their own way – regardless of the feelings of other nationalities? When they go abroad, surely they find it amusing (or possibly insulting?) to find people mispronouncing any Americanisms.

Another case of cultural ignorance I recently heard about was with an English instructor at the Adult School. After asking the foreign students to identify their home countries, she looked nonplussed and had no clue as to where Moldovia is. This from someone married to an academic!

Cross Country – St. Mary’s sophomore Gabriela Rios-Sotelo won the high school girls’ race at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday. Tino Rodriguez finished 30th in the boys’ race for the Panthers.

Girls Volleyball - Ukaih def. Berkeley 5-15, 15-4, 16-14

Berkeley High loses in the first round of championship play after defeating Maria Carillo High and Elsie Allen High in pool play. The Yellowjackets (5-6) go up 14-10 in the final game against Ukiah High but can’t polish off the win.

Police arrested two men for drug possession at the corner of Telegraph and Alcatraz avenues at 6 p.m. Wednesday, police said. An officer observed two men smelling an item in their hands. They admitted they were handling a small amount of marijuana, and one was caught trying to hide a crack pipe in his left hand. Thomas Eldriage, 55, and Donald Devereaux, 43, were arrested for drug possession.

n Suspected DUI

A 21-year-old female drove her vehicle into three parked cars in the area of Hearst and Euclid streets at 9:35 p.m. Wednesday, police said. The driver, Naomi Brandes, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving when she failed to perform a field sobriety test at the scene of the accident.

LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Bruins were impressive in bouncing back from a disappointing loss.

Cory Paus threw two touchdown passes and San Diego State mistakes led to the first 23 points as the Bruins routed the Aztecs 43-7 Saturday.

Arizona St. 65, Stanford 24

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Andrew Walter passed for 414 yards and five touchdowns in his first start this season, leading the Sun Devils past Stanford 65-24 Saturday.

Arizona 14, N. Texas 9

TUCSON, Ariz. – Mike Bell ran 14 yards for a touchdown and Gary Love returned a blocked field goal 65 yards for another TD - all in the final 2 minutes of the first half - and Arizona held off surprising North Texas 14-9 Saturday night.

SAN FRANCISCO – As the drumbeat for war grows louder, demonstrators from across the state and beyond turned out in the thousands Saturday to make their own music, protesting possible U.S. military action in Iraq.

While President Bush, in Texas Saturday, said he expects Congress to authorize force against Iraq soon, more than 3,000 protesters filled the city streets in a march and rally for peace in the Middle East.

“We’re against war in Iraq,” said David Browne, 67, of San Francisco, who marched alongside his wife, Caryl, 61. “We see a lack of debate on all these issues.”

One protester carried a banner reading “Drop Bush not Bombs.” Another sign said “Terrorists wear pinstriped suits,” while a person dressed as Wonder Woman carried a hand-lettered sign with one simple word: “Peace.”

“If this war goes through, it will turn the whole Arab world into a cauldron of anti-Americanism,” said Eyad Kishawi, one of the protest’s organizers and a member of the Free Palestine Alliance.

Another participant marched on stilts dressed as the Statue of Liberty with a gag in her mouth and her hands tied behind her back. She was led by a fellow stilt-walker who was dressed as Uncle Sam.

“Liberty has been gagged and taken hostage,” explained Erin McMahon, 41, who wore a President Bush mask. McMahon said the three are members of a performance group called Danger Ha-Ha.

Police estimated the crowd to be about 3,000 strong, while organizers placed the number around 7,000. Those estimates surpassed the 2,000 people police said participated in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank protests in Washington D.C Saturday.

Busloads of protesters came from Seattle, Southern California and around the Bay Area, organizers said. More than 30 groups from the Justice in Palestine Coalition and the International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition planned the protest.

“We’re here to send three messages: To tell Palestinians and Iraqis there are people who care, to tell Bush we are against war, and to send a message to the U.S. public that they are the only ones who can say no to war,” said Michel Shehaden, 45, of Los Angeles.

San Francisco police said they were not aware that any arrests had been made.

SAN FRANCISCO – Now that San Francisco is close recycling 50 percent of its waste, environmentalists say they are hoping the Board of Supervisors will raise the official goal on Monday to 75 percent.

The San Francisco Health Commission has already backed meeting the higher standard by 2010, according to Mark Westlund of the city's Environment Department. If the supervisors agree as expected, he said San Francisco is likely to keep moving ahead to become the first city in the nation to create a timeline to get to zero waste as soon as possible.

Westlund said San Francisco's recycling program has been among the most successful around, currently reaching the 46-percent mark for recycling with a predicted arrival at 50 percent or better by the end of the year. That is the state-mandated level currently.

But Jared Blumenfield, who heads the Environment Department, points out that even with 50 percent recycling the amount of garbage that goes into landfill each year is about 800,000 tons – the equivalent weight of the Golden Gate Bridge.

OAKLAND – Two police officers have been arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitutes while on duty.

Oakland Officers Eric Richholt, 35, and Mark Neely Jr., 29, were arrested by San Leandro officers Thursday at a beauty salon that was believed to be a front for prostitution. They were cited for misdemeanors and released.

“How can we expect to police the community if we can’t even police ourselves?” Word said.

The two officers have been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal affairs probe.

San Jose airport to increase security, decrease noise

SAN JOSE – Mineta San Jose International Airport will receive $15 million in from the Federal Aviation Administration to increase security and reduce noise pollution.

About half of the funding announced Friday will repay the airport for insulating 300 homes in San Jose and Santa Clara meant to protect neighborhoods from airport noise and improve airport security.

The rest will pay for security enhancements and to reimburse the city for improvements completed since September 2001.

Locals worried over NASA building construction

MOUNTAIN VIEW – A plan to build housing, office and research space for thousands of people on 500 acres of land at Moffett Field has nearby cities worried about increased traffic congestion and decreased air quality.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which has a 1,000-acre air field there, is about to approve an environmental study that would clear the way to start design and construction on the project, which is expected to be finished around 2017.

The project would include 1,930 new housing units, 7,100 new jobs, 3,000 students, and nearly 15,000 additional trips on the three nearby freeways.

Those are the numbers that came after NASA got rid of 100 jobs and added 75 percent more housing, after Sunnyvale and Mountain View demanded that the agency modify its plans.

Studies show that the increased traffic will contribute not just to gridlock, but also to increased levels of nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide.

Opponents also criticize NASA’s plan to fill in 22 acres of flood plain near wetlands, but NASA points out that it is not building on the wetlands. The agency will also add 81 acres of burrowing owl preserve, use reclaimed water to irrigate and certify its buildings as sustainably designed.

The Pacific Maritime Association said it would not order any new workers to the docks until the longshoremen’s union agrees to sign and extend a lapsed contract they have been negotiating.

The labor crisis will ripple through the U.S. economy as ports that handle about $1 billion daily worth of cargo shut down.

“They’re just doing whatever they’re doing,” said Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Association president Joseph Miniace called the decision a “defensive shut down” that came less than 12 hours after longshoremen returned to the docks at 29 major Pacific ports as shipping lines lifted a Friday lockout imposed immediately after contract negotiations with their union fell apart.

The association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, accused the union of deliberately disrupting work by understaffing operations and dispatching unskilled workers.

The association said productivity had “fallen off the cliff” Sunday, because of what some association managers said was the way the union was dispatching workers.

“It’s like a plumber showing up to roof your house,” said Bill Niland, a manager for the association’s San Francisco area.

“I will not pay workers to strike,” Miniace added.

West Coast ports handled more than $300 billion in cargo over the past year. In the 36 hours the docks were closed, about 30 ships had to moor outside berths at ports in Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

That meant hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Pacific Rim trade wasn’t entering the U.S. distribution chain — a blow to importers who are scrambling to secure goods for the holiday season. At the same time, exporters feared a prolonged disruption would see their goods rot on the docks.

Miniace appealed for a mediator.

A message left Sunday evening with the U.S. Labor Department was not immediately returned.

The union has accused the Bush administration of meddling in talks, which began in May and showed some signs of progress before deteriorating in the late summer.

Talks finally crumbled last week over the question of how to implement new technology on the waterfront.

Longshoremen said they can accept short-term job losses from increased efficiency, but the union wanted guarantees that positions created by computer tracking systems would be union-covered.

Shipping lines counter that increases in trade will more than offset job losses, but the union shouldn’t have jurisdiction over every new job that new technology produces.

The San Francisco union chapter, historically one of the most militant on the coast, told workers who normally report to the same shipping terminal each day to instead begin Sunday at the dispatch hall for random assignment. Experienced crane operators, for example, chose other jobs and left their less experienced co-workers to operate the cranes, according to Richard Mead, local union president.

At the terminal run by Maersk, no operators took jobs on three cranes to load the last few containers on a ship that was otherwise ready to steam out.

“They wanted us to come back like we were going to be good little puppy dogs,” Mead said. “It doesn’t work like that on the waterfront.”

So far, AMD has failed to make much headway in the server market and has been struggling more than usual lately getting into personal computers because of stiff competition and weak demand.

If it succeeds with the new chips, developed not coincidentally under the code name “Hammer,” AMD could become the microprocessor industry’s powerhouse, setting the pace for computing for years to come.

But if AMD stumbles, Hammer will join a growing list of powerful chips nobody wants.

“We’ve established something that still needs to prove itself by getting into the market and succeeding,” said Fred Weber, chief technology officer of AMD’s Computation Products Group.

An Athlon-branded desktop version is scheduled for release early next year, several months late because of production delays. Chips for servers, branded Opteron, will follow later in 2003.

Hammer chips process data in 64-bit chunks rather than 32-bit chunks as is the case with today’s Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon chips. Currently, only high-end servers and workstations use 64-bit processors.

The increase in the number of bits is similar to widening a freeway, allowing a higher volume of data “traffic” inside the processor and to memory.

Still, a computer’s operating system and other programs must be optimized to take advantage of a 64-bit processor.

But unlike today’s 64-bit chips, the Hammer chips speak the same language – the x86 instruction set – as today’s 32-bit chips as well as yesterday’s 16-bit and 8-bit chips.

“People want to be able to run their existing code,” Weber said. “There are a lot of applications that don’t need to move to 64 bits ever.”

Intel’s 64-bit offering, Itanium, abandoned the x86 instruction set in favor of Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing. Intel says it was designed for high-end computing needs. Though Itanium can run 32-bit code, it loses performance.

AMD maintains that its Hammer technology will give users more options, particularly businesses that want to run 64-bit programs alongside existing 32-bit software without side effects.

But while big businesses have shown a need for such powerful chips with resource-intensive simulation and database programs, it’s not so clear ordinary consumers need them.

“If you look at the types of work people do, if you look at the data sizes in which they operate, 32 bits is where the desktop’s at,” said Louis Burns, general manager of Intel’s Desktop Platform Group.

AMD concedes as much.

After all, it took a decade to switch from 16-bit to 32-bit computing. By the end, the PC world moved from text-only interfaces of MS-DOS to the graphics of Windows 95.

Initially, Hammer won’t have a native, 64-bit Windows operating system. Until Microsoft Corp. develops one, as promised, users will have to run the 32-bit version.

AMD maintains the Hammer chips will still have a performance advantage, even running only 32-bit code, because they incorporate some functions typically performed by chips outside the processor.

The result is a 10 percent to 15 percent improvement in speed over comparable 32-bit processors, said John Crank, AMD’s senior branding manager.

AMD has yet to release key details, including clock speeds and their true performance compared with existing, 32-bit chips. Nor has it released exact pricing, though it is expected to be in line with computers running Intel’s top chips.

Intel, which normally is relatively quiet about its competition, has been uncharacteristically vocal about Hammer, saying it isn’t much more than a warmed-over version of the existing Athlon, or K7, processor.

“If you look hard at where the Hammer product is, it’s a K7 core,” Burns said. “They bolted a memory controller to it, and they added six instructions from what I can tell and a couple address lines. It’s not true innovation.”

Intel is reportedly working on its own version of a 64-bit desktop chip – code-named Yamhill, or Plan B – just in case AMD’s approach strikes gold. However, Burns denied those reports, and analysts say it’s unlikely Intel would quickly switch horses in midstream.

“Intel has a 64-bit strategy. It’s called Itanium,” said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at the research firm Insight 64. “If they were to do anything to try and add 64-bit features to their x86, it would detract from their Itanium strategy.”

Nonetheless, AMD could create the perception that it is offering something that Intel is not – even if the programs that can use 64 bits are years away.

“This is a classic AMD strategy of trying to find the transition point between product introductions for Intel ... and introduce products that fit right into those holes,” said Eric Ross, an analyst at Investec Inc.

Consumers, after all, might be swayed.

“If AMD is at all successful at their marketing and positioning,” Brookwood said, “they will be able to convince a lot of people that 64 is at least as good as 32.”

The suit also alleges the company violated statutes against using false addresses in advertising, failing to disclose required information, engaging in untrue or deceptive advertising and engaging in unfair business competition.

“Spamming is the scourge of the Information Age,” Lockyer said Thursday evening in a written release. “In filing this action, we are sounding a warning that we will track down and prosecute those who send illegal spam.”

An afterhours call to the Canyon Country-based company Thursday was not immediately returned. Several Internet advertisements for P.W. Marketing offer lists of e-mail addresses for sale, including a list of 4.5 million California residents and businesses.

“Statistically, California residents are the most responsive consumers to e-mail advertisers who offer various products and services,” the PW Marketing advertisement said.

SACRAMENTO – With just two days to clear the dozens of bills still sitting on his desk, Gov. Gray Davis Sunday signed legislation that would give Mexican farm workers brought to the United States during World War II more time to file legal action for payment.

The governor also signed an array of education bills that would increase the powers of school districts that issue charters for charter schools and provide aid to high schools.

Davis has until midnight Monday to sign or veto the bills that passed the Legislature, which ended its session Aug. 31.

Still awaiting action are bills that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain California driver’s licenses, give farm workers the right to third-party mediation during contract negotiations and let Indian tribes have greater influence over areas they consider sacred sites.

Those bills are considered among the most politically difficult for Davis, who’s facing Republican financier Bill Simon in his race for a second term. For example, signing the farm worker bill would earn Davis the enmity of farmers in the Central Valley who are some of his largest campaign contributors, while a veto could alienate Hispanic voters who are some of Democrat Davis’ most loyal supporters.

Davis backed one cause dear to Hispanic leaders Sunday by signing AB2913 by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles, which will extend the statute of limitations for payment claims for braceros. They are the more than 300,000 Mexican farm workers contracted by the U.S. government to relieve the labor shortage during World War II.

“It’s an outrage that many braceros who worked in California during a national time of need have never been paid for their labor,” Davis said in a statement released Sunday. “This bill will help pay a long-overdue debt.”

The labor agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments required a portion of the braceros’ wages to be withheld as a savings fund, to be paid upon their return to Mexico.

Many never received the money, often because they neither knew it was owed to them nor could navigate the bureaucracy when they did try to claim it. Experts have estimated the 10 percent of wages withheld between 1942 and 1950 could now total up to $1 billion, including interest.

Davis also signed a bill Sunday, clarifying the state’s position on worker rights in relation to immigration status.

In education, Davis addressed what legislators had identified as a weakness in the state’s decade-old charter school program by signing the bill by Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, D-Fresno, that limits where the publicly funded schools can operate.

Charter schools are public schools run by nonprofit or private organizations, such as parent and teacher groups and in some cases, for-profit companies. The schools, which are monitored by individual school districts that grant the charter, are allowed to bypass much of the red tape that bogs down regular public schools in exchange for increased accountability.

Reyes said the bill will make it easier for local communities to oversee charter schools.

“The governor agreed with the Legislature in that the charter schools need more oversight and accountability,” Reyes said. “You’ll see more parents involved. You’ll see more accountability.”

Along with the education and labor bills, Davis signed a package of legislation aimed at helping the state control sprawl and accommodate the housing needs of its 35 million residents.

The trio of bills all focus efforts on promoting development within already developed areas, also called infill, and reducing urban sprawl in a state that’s losing 50,000 acres of farmland per year.

The plain, boxy appearance of Fantasy Building on 10th Street conceals the glamorous work that goes on inside. Most recently, the building’s studios have contributed to this month’s release of three films on DVD.

The Saul Zaentz Film Center, in the Fantasy Building, did post-production work on DVD versions of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “Amadeus” and “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” The films, all originally produced by Saul Zaentz, will hit stores this week with newly restored picture and soundtracks.

Sound is the Saul Zaentz Film Center’s ace in the hole. Hollywood recognizes the center’s facilities and skilled staff as a coveted place to mix movie sound, which the new DVDs highlight.

Film center staffer and sound mixer Mark Berger won an Academy Award in 1985 for his work on “Amadeus” (along with cohorts Thomas Scott, Todd Boekelheide, and Christopher Newman), one of the six Oscars the film collected.

The film of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart begged for a good sound mix. And to give a realistic sense of a live Mozart performance in 18th century Vienna, Berger and his team recorded audiences of all sizes – including silent-movie viewers at the Pacific Film Archive – to get sounds of people shuffling in their seats.

Berger dusted off the original sound to prepare the rerelease with more sophisticated sound technology than he had in 1984. To his surprise, he didn’t need to touch the music mix at all. “In spite of the technology, we got it right the first time.”

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” needed a bit more work. The negative was brought out for cleaning and restoration, but Berger said even the original production was raw at the time.

The film based on Ken Kesey’s novel about a convict who cons his way into cushy time at the psyche ward and tries in vain to beat the system won five Oscars in 1975, but was plagued with unavoidable sound distortion on the dialogue track – faint traces of tape hiss with camera noise and mono mixed in.

With 27 years of technological improvements and skills, Berger went back to the tapes to clean them up and create a stereo mix. No sound was added to the rerelease version, said Berger. “The philosophy was, the film was particular and it should stay that way. It should reflect the time it was made in,” he explained.

All sound manipulation took place in the mixing, not the editing. Nothing was added or subtracted, keeping true to the film’s original intentions.

Director Milos Foreman’s original idea was to make a strong distinction between the environment inside the hospital and the outside world, said Berger. When Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) coaxes his disoriented inmates out of the insular, claustrophobic hospital halls to play some basketball in the sun, Berger placed the outside sounds in an expansive stereo field.

Although the subtleties of the sound mix might be impressive heard through a movie theater’s speaker system, they could get lost on many people’s televisions at home. Even with the surround sound of new home entertainment setups, dynamics are the first to go. The loud isn’t too loud, and the quiet bits get lost. Berger’s digital re-mixes reflect the sound quality of high-end DVD players, while narrowing the dynamic range to fit their limitations.

Sound is usually the least popular aspect of movies, the one most easily forgotten outside the theater. These DVD releases are a testament that the renowned mixing stages and their captains in the Fantasy Building are the invisible hands guiding a filmmaker’s fictional tapestry.

Is it politics or just common sense to “consider” relocating the stadium? Might the university's biggest revenue-generator benefit from a more user-friendly location that is less constrained by proximate residences? Would natural resources in Strawberry Canyon and historic resources in surrounding neighborhoods be better protected by a different campus use at the mouth of the canyon? Might an infusion of faculty housing improve traffic for everyone while reducing parking demand and enhancing quality of life for faculty? Might the old stadium be fit enough to meet another demand, i.e. for intramural and recreational purposes?

Instead of a communitywide discussion to this effect, university administrators have stated their intentions to retrofit the 72-year-old stadium with the assumption the concrete structure will carry the Cal Bears into the 22nd century. Meanwhile, housing density in adjacent areas increases, and will continue to increase, during the stadium's lifetime.

Also, there are numerous hazards with the current location, all of which interact dynamically to potentiate existing dangers. Among these are the following:

n The Hayward Fault bisecting the stadium lengthwise.

n The location of the stadium at a virtual dead-end with no eastern egress except for Centennial Drive.

n The possible evacuation of 75,000 spectators which would interfere with emergency response to the area.

n The proximity of a state-designated critical fire zone.

Although the Panoramic Hill Association has not taken a position as to relocating the stadium, there are many good reasons to have a communitywide discussion about just that. It is neither “preposterous” nor “pie in the sky” to do so. One could easily lob back that it would be preposterous to not do so.

Navigate your way through legal issues when living with cancer or any serious illness. Panel presentation on employment, insurance and public benefits and one-on-one sessions with attorneys. Please, pre-register.

601-4040, Ext. 102 for information

or Ext. 103 to register

Free

Garage Sale/ Car Wash

Belize/ Berkeley Scouts

10 to 2 p.m.

Epworth UMC, 1953 Hopkins St.

International exchange fundraising effort for scouts.

525-6058

From Monument to Masses, Victory at Sea & Yesterday’s Kids

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5

A Forum on the Arts with the Berkeley Mayoral Candidates

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St.

558-1381

Free

Sunday, Sept. 29

How Berkeley Can You Be?

11 a.m. parade and 12:30 p.m. festival

Parade starts at University Avenue

and California Street. Ends at

Civic Center Park, where the

festival takes place.

849-4688.

www.howberkeleycanyoube.com

Tibetan Buddhism

“Healing Mind”

6 p.m.

Tibetan Nyingma Institute

1815 Highland Place

Sylvia Gretchen discusses how the teachings cultivate the mind and redefine what healing means.

843-6812

Free

“Iron Chef” Style Cook-Off

3 to 4 p.m.

(followed by reception, 4 to 6 p.m.)

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto

1919 Fourth St.

In this “Crabby Chef” Competition 2002, top East Bay chefs vie for this year’s title by creating the tastiest crab dish. Master of Ceremonies will be KGO-AM’s Gene Burns.

845-7777 or 845-7771

Free

City of Berkeley

2002 Public Art Competition

1 to 3 p.m.

Berkeley Central Public Library

2090 Kittredge St.

A public art informational workshop will be open to all artists regarding public art site proposals.

981-6100

Free

Saturday, Sept. 28

Barry & Alic Oliver

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$16.50 in advance. $17.50 at door.

San Francisco Improv.

8 p.m.

Cafe Eclectica, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany

527-2344

Donations welcome

From Monument to Masses,

Victory at Sea and Yesterday’s Kids

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5.

Sunday, Sept. 29

Si Kahn

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Cellist Gianna Abondolo

4 p.m.

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St.

Classical favorites and original

compositions for cello.

559-6910

$10 general. 18 and under free.

Weber Iago and Harvey Wainaple

4:30 p.m.

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St.

845-5373

$10-$15.

David Friesen and Uwe Kropinski

8 p.m.

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St.

845-5373

$10-$15.

Blowing Zen: A Performance of Shakuhachi

7:30 p.m.

St. John’s Presbyterian Church

2626 College Ave.

528-2027

$12 at door. Children $5. Seniors $10.

Chamber Music

4 to 5:15 p.m.

Crowden Music Center 1475 Rose St.

Gianna Abondolo & Friends

celebrate the release of their

classical and jazz CD.

559-6910

$10. 18 and under free.

Tuesday, Oct. 1

Toshi Reagon

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Wednesday, Oct. 2

Hookslide 8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Thursday, Oct. 3

Pete & Joan Wernick featuring Dr. Banjo

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Saturday, Oct. 5

Leon Bates

7:30 p.m.

Calvin Simmons Theatre, 10 Tenth St.

Pianist Leon Bates offers works by Mozart, Brahms and Chopin.

451-0775 or www.fourseasonsconcerts.com

$25-$35.

All Bets Off, Benumb and Uphill Battle

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5.

House Jacks

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com

$16.50 in advance. $17.50 at door.

"Balancing Acts"

Through Oct. 10

Gallery 555, 555 12th St.,

Oakland City Center

Oakland's 'Third Thursday' art night features Ann Weber's works made of cardboard.

http://www.oaklandcitycenter.com.

Free.

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”

Through Oct. 30, Mon.-Fri.,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Civic Center Building

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor

Featuring 40 photographs

by Berkeley artist David Bacon.

834-3663, Ext. 338, uchanse@secondharvest.org

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work

Though Oct. 13

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.

A stir of excitement sparked Oakland Ballet’s season opener this month. While the East Bay’s other major dance company, Diablo Ballet, struggles on life support because of recent economic times, the Oakland troupe is thriving. Its success is due largely to artistic director Karen Brown’s energetic leadership and a dedicated board of directors.

Whatever the reason, dance lovers benefit. And from the look and sound of opening night, Oakland Ballet has come into its own as one of the East Bay’s most vibrant cultural purveyors.

The first pleasure of the evening was the Paramount Theater. If you’ve never set foot in its stunning art deco expanse, you owe yourself a visit. An audacious gem, it’s one of the few theaters that truly takes your breath away. It was so packed Friday night, you might have thought you were at San Francisco Ballet.

Good news for Oakland.

Karen Brown introduced the program, nodding to supporter Mayor Jerry Brown, who took a bow. A welcome aspect of the company’s overall upgrade is its commitment to live music, demonstrated by the Turtle Island String Quartet. The band jump-started the evening with a jazz version of “On Green Dolphin Street” that sounded deliciously like Stephane Grappelli crossed with Ali Akbar Khan.

Then came the first piece, “A Night in Tunisia,” choreographed by Charles Anderson to Turtle Island’s version of a Dizzy Gillespie score. A native San Franciscan, Anderson is on the faculty of several local companies. In “A Night in Tunisia,” he’s created a work that’s sunny with barely a whiff of North Africa, but no matter.

What counts is what he’s set to Turtle Island’s syncopated line, and though the result is lightweight, it’s cheerful and crowd-pleasing, full of jazzy lopes, finger snaps and gleefully snaking arms. Featuring an insouciant trio – Ilana Goldman, Chih-Ting Shih, and Katherine Wells – and Peter Strand and Chih-Ting Shih in an agile duet, "Tunisia" concludes with a big finish for 16 dancers, who lack SF Ballet’s precision but move with winning verve.

Who knows what will come when their talents get fine-tuned?

Next on the bill was a revival of Lew Christensen’s 1942 “Jinx” with Christensen’s son leading the East Bay Symphony. A story ballet, it’s one of those circus-metaphor works of 20th century art, from “Petrushka” to “Freaks.” Here a brooding jester pines for a pert high-wire walker while spurning the bearded lady who loves him. Blamed by the troupe for a series of accidents, the jester comes back to haunt them after death. The work has a dated, ’40s air, but it’s fascinating nonetheless, and with an eerie poignancy. A taut Mario Alonzo danced the doomed jester. The colorful circus costumes were by Russell Hartley.

The evening concluded with “Bamboo,” a reprise of Michael Lowe’s hit from last year. Set to music of Melody of China, it unfolds in five scenes to create a world of precise and pleasing harmony, beginning with a dozen entwined dancers who unfold like the petals of a lotus. “Bamboo” features elegant posturings, tai-chi moments, percussive athletic bursts, girls wafting expressive red streamers.

The enthusiastic audience clearly liked these opening steps of Oakland Ballet’s third season under Karen Brown. Upcoming programs feature works by Agnes de Mille, Lew Christensen and the troupe’s own Mario Alonzo, followed by the annual staging of Ron Guidi’s “Nutcracker” in December.

A 43-7 win is usually a cause for celebration. But the Berkeley High coaches tore into their players after winning by that score over Kennedy High on Friday, citing a lackluster performance and poor discipline.

Berkeley scored 21 points in the game’s first eight minutes, and it looked as if the Yellowjackets would have an insurmountable lead by halftime. But Berkeley took its foot off the gas, allowing the overmatched Eagles to hang around until the fourth quarter.

The game was also marred by numerous personal fouls, one of which wiped out a 35-yard touchdown run by Berkeley fullback Aaron Boatwright, who scored three touchdowns despite the setback.

“You have to hold your composure against a team like that,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said. “Just beat them between the whistles. You can’t let the other team dictate your attitude and get caught up in all that extracurricular stuff.”

Senior linebacker Owen Goldstrom had an outstanding game, racking up three sacks and 12 tackles. But as the leader of the defense, Goldstrom was upset that Kennedy scored a touchdown late in the game.

“We should have had a shutout,” Goldstrom said. “[Kennedy] should have had negative yardage. Pittsburg held them to negative yards, and we have a better defense than Pittsburg.”

Indeed, the 0-3 Eagles have failed to gain 100 yards in any of their first three games this season. Against such a lightweight opponent, Berkeley lacked a killer instinct.

Boatwright scored two touchdowns in the opening quarter, a 7-yarder and a 10-yarder that were sandwiched around a Craig Hollis 21-yard score for a 21-0 Berkeley lead. But the Jackets wouldn’t score again for nearly 24 minutes of action, shooting themselves in the foot with a Jeff Spellman interception and a load of penalties. In all, Berkeley was flagged for 95 yards in penalties, more than twice as many yards as the Eagles managed to put up on offense.

Boatwright scored again near the end of the third quarter on a sweep from the one-yard line. Backup quarterback Dessalines Gant threw a 20-yard touchdown to wideout Sean Young on Gant’s first play of the game, which won’t quiet the quarterback controversy after Spellman’s 5-for-10 passing day for just 54 yards. Sophomore Antoine Cokes finished the Berkeley scoring with a 14-yard touchdown run following a 76-yard kickoff return by Chris Watson.

But the Eagles managed to get on the scoreboard as well in the fourth quarter, thanks mostly to their special teams. Eugene Clapps came unblocked on a punt and smothered it, then recovered the ball and rumbled down to the Berkeley two-yard line. Two plays later Jamahl Mackey blasted through the line for a touchdown.

Student conduct hearings for 32 pro-Palestinian protesters who participated in the April takeover of UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall start Monday amid controversy over the public’s right to observe them.

UC Berkeley officials are defending a decision to close the first hearing and move it away from the center of campus, arguing that the privacy measures are necessary to ensure order.

Students activists, meanwhile, say the university is simply attempting to block the public from viewing the process.

“They’re trying to move it away from the eyes of the campus community,” said Hoang Phan of Students for Justice in Palestine, which led the Wheeler Hall takeover last Spring.

A total of 79 protesters, including 41 students, were involved in the April 9 protest, calling on the nine-campus University of California system to divest from Israel.

The Alameda County District Attorney dropped criminal charges against the “Wheeler 79” in June, but the university has pursued student conduct charges.

Nine of the 41 students have agreed to an “informal resolution” of the charges, accepting a semester-long probation, while 32 have chosen to move forward with full hearings, opening themselves up to penalties as stiff as expulsion.

All students face charges of unauthorized entry to or use of university property, obstruction or disruption of teaching or other university activity, disturbing the peace and failure to comply with the directions of a university official.

Graduate student Roberto Hernandez, the subject of the first hearing Monday, faces an additional charge of physical or verbal abuse for allegedly biting a UC Berkeley police officer April 9.

Hernandez, who said he is innocent of all charges, condemned UC Berkeley professor David Zusman, chair of the student conduct hearing committee, for his decision to close the proceedings. Hernandez said his supporters would not have disrupted the hearing.

But university spokesperson Janet Gilmore said activists have made statements at student meetings about “rushing” the hearings.

Closing the proceedings, she said, is “an effort to ensure that the hearing will be fair and orderly.”

“That’s outrageous,” said Phan, of Students for Justice in Palestine, arguing that no statements about “rushing” the hearings were made. “I don’t know what they’re referring to.”

Students have also raised concerns about the composition of the committee that will run the student conduct hearing Monday.

Campus regulations call for a five-member committee composed of two faculty, two students and one staff member. If availability is a problem, the rules allow for alternates to fill in for regular committee members and for the panel to shrink to three members.

The university informed the students’ lawyers Thursday afternoon that the Hernandez committee would be composed of three faculty members, one of them a replacement for a student who could not serve.

Hernandez said the proposed panel was unacceptable, arguing that at least one student was necessary.

“The committee needs to be representative of this campus,” he said.

Gilmore said Friday that the university expected to have a three-member committee, with two faculty and one student, in place by Monday.

“This is part of a pattern of a lot of late changes,” said Phan, noting that the university did not inform students until Thursday that it was moving the hearing from Sproul Hall at the center of campus to the Clark Kerr facility, seven blocks south of the main campus on Warring Street.

“They’re trying to complicate things for us,” he said. “We have to scramble and call all of our witnesses and get them to another location.”

“It was just another effort to ensure that the hearing is fair and orderly,” Gilmore replied, discussing the shift to Clark Kerr.

Gilmore said students had circulated a flyer calling for a rally in Sproul Plaza outside the original hearing location.

The energetic and articulate African-American students of Berkeley High are to be congratulated for their presentations at the school board meeting on Sept. 25. I wish I could say the same for the superintendent and board President Issel. As an Afro-American parent, I am very disturbed that the superintendent and school board President Issel were unable to answer the basic questions of “who and why” did this attempted elimination of the Afro-American studies department occur? How is it possible that the two top officials for educational policy in Berkeley United School District did not know of a decision this important? If they didn't know, they should have.

Something is seriously wrong with our school district. When I read Mayor Dean's article in the Daily Planet about performance audits, I had to agree that performance audits is the way to go. The buck passing and finger pointing that took place at the board meeting on Sept. 25 is a good example of why someone needs to start asking the hard question and getting some straight answers. Collectively, the five members of the school board have been on the board for 24 years, and the system still doesn't work. And yet these five board members, with 24 years of experience, want us to re-elect them to continue mismanaging BUSD. So I say get a performance audit and get it quickly.

It took a couple of crooked numbers on the scoreboard for St. Mary’s High to get rid of a round number on its record.

Steve Murphy led the Panthers (1-2) to their highest scoring output of the season, throwing for a touchdown, catching a touchdown pass and returning a kick for a touchdown in St. Mary’s first win of the season, 29-18 over De Anza (1-2).

Up 21-18 with 11:32 left in the game, Murphy took the kickoff, which the Panthers chose to rekick after the initial kick went out of bounds, and took it back 80 yards for a touchdown.

“I fielded the ball in the middle, then I cut back and waited for the crease to open. I saw the hole and I hit it hard. Everybody stayed on their blocks,” said Murphy, who started the game at quarterback and also played running back, wide receiver and defensive back.

Murphy’s run squashed the momentum of the Dons, who on the previous play had narrowed the St. Mary’s lead to three on quarterback Gregg Parker’s touchdown run on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line.

In the second quarter St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson put in sophomore quarterback Scott Tully and rotated the speedier Murphy to running back and wide receiver.

“We are doing anything we can to get Steve the ball... and Scott throws a great ball and he’s tall,” said Lawson, who added that having the 6-foot-3 Tully on the field at quarterback allowed him to rest Murphy at times.

Tully hooked up with Murphy on the Panthers’ first drive of the second quarter when he lobbed up a 54-yard post pass that Murphy caught well behind the defender.

“I just ate up his cushion,” said Murphy, who agreed with Tully that the two have good chemistry on the field from both having played quarterback and playing together for a some time.

“It kind of gives a variety to our offense. [Murphy] is really athletic and that brings out the full potential of our offense.” said Tully, who on the touchdown pass said he noticed the Dons had “eight men in the box and I saw Steve had man to man coverage, so I just threw it up.”

Linebacker Nick Osborn was another versatile player for St. Mary’s, anchoring a defense that had constant pressure on the Dons’ quarterbacks and was able to stuff their misdirection running game.

“Our outside backers made plays. We just had to stay in our lanes and wait for them to come to us,” said Osborn who caught a 15-yard touchdown pass as a tight end from Murphy in the first quarter to give the Panthers a 7-0 lead.

For more than a quarter century native American Rosemary Cambra has provided a voice for her people. This week, Cambra, chairwoman for the Bay Area's Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, brought her message to Berkeley, where she urged the city to preserve and protect local burial grounds under University Avenue at the train tracks near Fourth Street.

“I am here to present the legal, cultural and spiritual concerns over this sacred site,” said Cambra at a West Berkeley Project Area Commission (WBPAC) meeting Thursday. “If we are not mindful of our culture and our language and our history, [the United States] government can eliminate [our culture].”

WBPAC members hope the meeting will establish a partnership between Berkeley and the Ohlone Tribe in which Cambra will serve as a consultant and protect the tribe’s interests – mainly respecting the dead – during a city development project near the 500-year-old Ohlone burial site.

The city is looking to build a transit hub at the west Berkeley rail stop, linking bus, ferry, train and taxi services. The purchase and restoration of the defunct Southern Pacific Rail Station would be part of the project.

While improvements are being made to the area, however, including leveling and paving surrounding roads, burial tombs would need to be protected, according to planners and archeologists.

A “treatment plan,” designed to preserve the burial grounds during construction, is being put together by city engineers and an archeologist selected by the Ohlone tribe, said Iris Starr, senior city planner.To protect the sacred remains, much of the initial paving and leveling “will be done by hand, not by machines,” said Starr.

With the guidance of Cambra and Alan Leventhal, an ethnohistorian the Ohlone Tribe picked to consult with the city, planners hope paving and preservation will begin by December.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Starr said.

The burial remains will remain undisturbed beneath the new transit hub after it is built.

In addition to protecting the Ohlone burial site, planners hope to celebrate the tribe’s history and culture by including Ohlone art displays at the new transit hub.

One such display could consist of a large mural reflecting tribal life or a series of displays located inside a restored train station.

While she is pleased with the plans for commemorating the tribe, Cambra warns that preservation efforts should not to be taken lightly. Instead, she says, city and tribal leaders must work closely to establish a true partnership.

“I have a lot of concerns. I don't want to be a part of a lack of understanding when it comes to preservation,” Cambra stated, citing failed efforts in Emeryville to preserve and protect a submerged burial site. “If you don't have integrity, understanding and honesty, we don't want to be a part of it.”

As the representative of the Muwekma Ohlone, Cambra is all too familiar with disappointment. Having gone 100 years without recognition from the United States government as being an official native tribe, the Muwekma have taken matters into their own hands.

They have established both a strong legal team and a group of knowledgeable cultural historians to preserve the rights and heritage of the tribe.

Since 1989, the Muwekma have incurred more than $10 million in legal debt in their fight to gain status as a federally-recognized group. Though a ruling on Sept. 6 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs denied their latest request, the tribe continues to seek acknowledgment.

“One needs to defend our bloodline and take on any government when they try to terminate our culture, our history and our existence. We are the symbol and the example of what the U.S. government can do to a group if you let them,” Cambra said.

PHILADELPHIA - No. 4 Cal twice came back from one-goal deficits to defeat Pennsylvania, 4-2, Friday afternoon at Rhodes Field. The Bears improved to 6-1-1, while the Quakers dropped to 5-3-0.

Penn jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 41st minute with an unassisted goal from Robin Watson.

Six minutes after the halftime break, Cal senior Brittany Kirk tied the game at 1-1 with her third goal of the season. Freshman Dania Cabello was credited with the assist.

Penn grabbed the lead for the last time in the 58th minute on Katy Cross’ 10th goal of the year.

Cal junior midfielder Kassie Doubrava converted her first goal of the season in the 65th minute with Cabello earned her second assist of the contest.

Senior defender Lucy Brining tallied the eventual game-winner in the 70th minute on a feed from senior Carly Fuller. Six minutes later, Fuller added some insurance for the Bears with her third penalty kick goal of the season.

Friday’s game marked the return of Cal senior All-American Laura Schott, who had missed the previous six games with an MCL sprain and a one-game red card suspension. She came off the bench in her first minutes since the Bears’ Aug. 31 season opener.

Berkeley mayor Shirley Dean and challenger Tom Bates, a former state Assemblyman, are within a few percentage points in the race for voter support, according to a poll commissioned by the mayor’s office.

Oakland-based pollster Lake Snell Perry and Associates found that Dean leads Bates 41 percent to 38 percent in the mayoral contest with 19 percent of the 400-person sample undecided. The survey’s margin of error was 4.9 percent.

“I feel pretty good about the results,” said Dean. “We knew it was going to be a close race from the very beginning.”

In addition to identifying a virtually dead-even contest, Perry and Associates found 58 percent of those polled think the city is “heading in the right direction.” Twenty-six percent believe the city is “on the wrong track,” pollsters found.

“That’s the most important number in the whole poll,” said Dean. “People are happy with the way the city is being run and that’s what will make up their minds in the election.”

“It’s rare for a campaign to release a poll unless they’ve got problems,” Tramutola said, noting that polls are normally used internally to make strategic decisions. He suggested that the mayor is having difficulty raising money and the poll is being used to re-establish credibility for her campaign.

The Bates’ camp has raised roughly $100,000, according to Tramutola. Dean officials say they have at least that much money.

I am very distressed at the decision to place a new traffic signal at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Russell Street. A signal at this location will do nothing more than create a thruway parallel to Ashby Avenue between Telegraph and Shattuck Avenue, without in any way mitigating the traffic along Ashby itself. It’s been demonstrated time and again that more automobile lanes simply means increased use and does little to diminish the flow of cars along a given corridor.

Russell is a residential street, a family street, a street where children live, a street with an elementary school. Why would the office of transportation believe it would be a good idea to increase automobile traffic on a street of this nature? Since Berkeley Bowl moved to 2020 Oregon, I have observed an increase in the number of young families on Russell. I have seen an improvement in the tone of the street, the overall appearance and the quality of the landscaping. Why do you want to change all that?

I sincerely hope the office of transportation reconsiders its decision.

The Cal men’s soccer team won its fifth game of the season against Bay Area rival No. 22 Santa Clara Thursday night, 2-1, in Buck Shaw Stadium. Sophomore Carl Acosta led the Golden Bears to their fourth straight victory, recording both of Cal’s goals.

Acosta’s first score came at the 27:20 mark when he took a pass flicked on from a long goalkeeper punt, beat the Santa Clara defender and slammed home his second goal of the season. He would capitalize again just five minutes later after a cross deflected off both a Cal player and a Bronco player to his waiting feet where he slid a low ball past Santa Clara netminder Steve Cronin.

Cal field hockey gets overtime win over Georgetown

In a steady rain on Kehoe Field the California field hockey team (6-1) took its fifth straight win in a 3-2 overtime victory against Georgetown (3-4). Regional All-American Nora Feddersen scored her second goal of the season to give the Golden Bears the edge over the Hoyas two and a half minutes into overtime.

With only six minutes remaining in regulation time, Jessica Quinn fired another past Bear goalkeeper, Kelly Knapp, who before this game had allowed only three goals past her between the pipes, to tie the game, 2-2. Feddersen zipped the game-winning shot off of a corner.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

Peter Teichner's passionate attack on housing and smart growth, Sept. 17 Daily Planet Forum, is just not convincing. Teichner and other pro-height initiative folks fail to understand how critical new housing is to making Berkeley a truly livable city. One of the most common arguments used by the anti-housing, NIMBY crowd is that the initiative will preserve the wonderful character of our neighborhoods from the awful mixed-use housing developments going in downtown and along transit corridors. Teichner cites 2700 San Pablo Ave. as an example of these terrible developments he wants to stop. Indeed, Mr. Teichner doesn't want to “forfeit Berkeley's low-key urban character and our current quality of life.”

As a resident of west Berkeley (not too far from San Pablo Avenue), I am curious what “quality of life” he is talking about exactly. Is referring to the rampant crime and prostitution that occur on a street that is all but deserted after dark? Is he referring to the quality of life on San Pablo where not a single restaurant is open in the evening for nearby residents?

San Pablo Avenue, with its wonderful street trees and prime location, has great potential to be one of the most beautiful boulevards in the Bay Area. What San Pablo needs so badly is more mixed-use housing that brings working families and small businesses into the neighborhood. These residents then naturally provide “eyes on the street” at all times, producing a safer and more livable city that no amount of police presence could ever ensure. Proposition P supporters don't seem to understand that Berkeley residents are fed-up with crime, traffic, pollution, and over-priced housing.

A local cat owner says her kitty with 29 toes surely beats a many-toed Maine cat for a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.

Berkeley’s very own Shanghai, a stubby-tailed Manx-Siamese mix, appears to outshine the 28-toed Mooch who recently made national headlines for possibly having the most toes.

Owner Marca Lamore says the first thing guests say when they take a look at Shanghai is, “What’s wrong with his feet?”

Cats like Shanghai and Mooch are born with a hereditary condition called polydacty, Latin for “many toes.” Most polydactyl cats are born with extra toes on their front paws only. But Shanghai has extra toes on all four paws. Exactly many toes the cat has on each paw is a little tough to judge. Toes on polydactyl cats like Shanghai are often fused together, or only partially developed, and thus tough to count.

Shanghai was found as a kitten at a harbor in Crescent City, near the Oregon border. Suffering from an eye infection and respiratory illness, he soon recovered under Lamore’s care.

“When he first came here, he fit in my hand,” she said. Now three years old, Shanghai seems well adjusted and plays amiably with Lamore’s three other cats.

The owners of 28-toe Mooch have sent documentation about the cat’s toes to the Guinness Book and are waiting to hear back.

“Mooch is nervous [about the decision],” said owner Becky Duval.

DuVal said he heard on the radio about the world record for most toes on a cat, currently held by Paddles, a black cat in Ennismore, Ontario, who has 27.

A Police special enforcement unit recovered 8 grams of crack cocaine Wednesday morning from a resident on the 900 block of Delaware Street, police said. In addition to drugs, police found numerous packaging items used for the sale of crack cocaine. Police arrested Jamel Morris, 18, for possession with the intent to and for violating his parole.

n Sexual battery

A teenage boy was arrested for grabbing a teenage girl’s breasts and pushing her to the ground at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday on the corner of Parker Street and Shattuck Avenue. According to police, a passing motorist saw the assault and began honking her horn. The boy fled the scene on foot, but was caught by police. The victim did not know to her assailant. Their names are not being released because they are teenagers.

n Auto burglary

A thief smashed a car window and stole a stereo, cell phone and CDs on the 800 block of Oxford Street Wednesday, police said.

OAKLAND – A rookie Oakland police officer was in stable condition at Highland Hospital Friday after being shot in the head by a unknown man in area of city known for having problems with drugs and prostitution, police say.

Oakland police Sgt. George Phillips said police having been looking for the shooter, but have not found him as of yet.

Phillips said the wounded officer stopped in front of the Mosswood Hotel in 683 West Blvd. at around 2:45 a.m. upon seeing a group of people gathered in the hotel's driveway.

When the officer approached the group, one man immediately separated himself from the rest. While attempting to contact the unknown man, the officer was fired upon without provocation, Phillips said.

In 1906 The West Berkeley Development Company, whose partners were involved with the Claremont and Northbrae subdivisions and were later part of the Mason McDuffie Company, subdivided the San Pablo Park tract in south west Berkeley. The residential subdivision begins one block east of San Pablo Avenue and is located between Russell and Ward streets.

The tract consists of an area of about 14 blocks surrounding a 15-acre park. A map of the subdivision shows that the corners of the blocks have been rounded rather than squared.

Oregon, Baker (now Mabel) and Mathews streets have been given a gentle curve to break the harsh grid of the ordinary street pattern.

A brochure for the subdivision proclaimed: “LOTS-$100 DOWN-$10 PER MONTH-NO INTEREST. All street work from sewers to sidewalks done free ... water mains laid ... trees planted ... the price you pay is the WHOLE price ... every bit of street work-concrete sidewalks and gutters, curbs, macadam pavement, sewers, water pipes ... even street trees.”

As in other residential subdivisions deed restrictions prohibited “saloons, corner grocery or neighboring shack ... just read the restrictions contained in the contract. They’re made for YOUR benefit and they WILL benefit you.”

The brochure also had photographs of shingled bungalows that the developers would build for “$500 down and this house is yours ... a pleasant shingled, Swiss chalet-with dining room paneled in redwood ... a clinker brick fire-place, window seats ... an artistic bungalow of five rooms.” Clapboard and Craftsman bungalows were constructed and today San Pablo Park is one of Berkeley’s quiet hidden neighborhoods.

In 1910 the park was donated to the city. This is inconsistent with the brochure which states that the “Town of Berkeley has taken an option on four blocks in the very heart of San Pablo Park. It purposes to give those four blocks to YOU and YOUR CHILDREN.”

It may be that the developers were not as generous as the story has been told, and they had initially intended to sell the land to the city rather than to donate it. It could be speculated that the city did not exercise their option to buy the land since bond measures for parks failed many times. The developers may have donated the park to the city to keep their promise to purchasers of their lots. At any rate, by 1914 a swing, see-saw, bars, and a football and a baseball field were installed. The Frances Albrier Community Center was built in 1970.

Susan Cerny is author of Berkeley Landmarks and writes this in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

SAN FRANCISCO – BART Police say they are looking for a man who pulled a knife during an argument Thursday evening and slashed a man's ear inside the 24th Street BART station in San Francisco.

The victim received 15 stitches and has been released from the hospital, police say.

The men, both of whom were in their early 30s, entered the station at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday and were apparently arguing over money or a ticket, police say.

After injuring the man with a knife, the man fled the scene on foot and police are still looking for him.

Fremont attempted homicide suspect at large

FREMONT – Fremont police today are looking for an attempted homicide suspect who stabbed a man early Thursday morning.

Police say officers called to 34500 Freemont Blvd. at 1:30 a.m. Thursday found the victim suffering from multiple stab wounds. He is currently in stable condition at an area hospital and is expected to survive the attack.

Police say the victim was only able to provide limited information about his attacker, though investigators believe the stabbing was the result of a verbal altercation.

The suspect has not yet been identified and is still outstanding.

Richmond police

investigating two homicides

RICHMOND – Police in Richmond are investigating two unrelated homicides in which city residents were found dead in their doorways.

The first victim was discovered at around 6:09 p.m. Thursday after officers patrolling southwest Richmond heard gunshots fired near South 15th Street and Florida Avenue.

They soon found 23-year-old Terry Wayne Forks lying across the doorway of a residence in the 200 block of South 15th Street. Emergency personnel pronounced him dead at the scene.

Police Sgt. Enos Johnson says it appears Forks was standing on a small, raised porch in front of the doorway when he was shot multiple times by a handgun-wielding suspect who fled on foot afterward. The motive for the killing is unknown.

Police say Forks' murder appears to be unrelated to a second killing that occurred early Friday in the 500 block of 16th Street.

Johnson says that at about 12:22 a.m., officers responding to reports of shots fired in the area arrived at the scene to find 31-year-old Shonte Leon Thompson dead and lying across an apartment doorway.

A preliminary investigation indicates that Thompson was standing in front of the apartment when he was approached from a common driveway area by a suspect who fired multiple rounds before fleeing on foot.

However, by midday Friday increasing winds with gusts of up to 10 mph were causing some concern on the fire lines. The most active section of the fire Friday was in the southeast section along Redwood Retreat Road.

Fire officials call the Croy Fire, which has raced through tinder-dry brush and trees since it began Monday, one of the area’s largest wildfires in decades.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials believe the fire originated inside a trailer home along the eastern side of the mountains. The rural area is known to law enforcement officials as a frequent dumping ground for the remains of methamphetamine labs, but Mike VanWinkle of the Bureau of Narcotics said it’s unclear if a meth lab had anything to do with the blaze.

Agents from the Bureau of Narcotics were investigating.

“They are very good at analyzing chemical compounds and determining whom may have been in those buildings. (At this time) it is inconclusive as to the presence of chemicals indicative of a meth lab,” he said.

More than 2,100 personnel from around the state battled towering flames that climbed oak and redwood trees.

It was 60 percent contained Friday and had cost $3.2 million to fight, said Ruth Ferziger, a California Department of Forestry spokeswoman. Full containment was expected by Sunday evening.

SAN FRANCISCO — The association representing shipping lines on Friday locked out longshoremen at all West Coast ports until Sunday morning as contract negotiations with the dock worker’s union deteriorated into a labor disruption that will immediately curtail the flow of Asian goods across the United States.

The announcement of the 36-hour “cooling-off period” came after the Pacific Maritime Association accused the longshoremen’s union of slowing down the pace of work to gain leverage in increasingly acrimonious talks.

The disruption could deal an immediate blow to the U.S. economy and stanch the flow of products from the Pacific Rim just as importers are rushing to distribute goods for the holiday season. The association has said that a coastwide labor disruption could cost the economy around $1 billion per day. West Coast ports handle more than $300 billion in imports and exports each year.

The Bush administration urged both sides to resolve the dispute, but said it would not intervene to keep the docks open.

“At this point, we are hopeful the two parties will come back to the bargaining table in good faith,” Department of Labor spokeswoman Sue Hensley said. “We are monitoring this very closely.”

Word of the lockout prompted the head of the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service to fly to San Francisco, where both sides have been engaged in steadily deteriorating talks.

Association president Joseph Miniace called the lockout “a very, very tough decision,” but one that shipping lines and terminal operators had to make because of provocations from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

“It’s the very last thing we wanted to do,” Miniace said. “But the union forced us into this.”

A union spokesman said the association was acting alone and that union negotiators wanted to keep talking. The union learned of the lockout when the two sides met for talks and association negotiators launched into a tirade, union President James Spinosa said.

“Miniace showed the same disrespect for the union he has since the beginning of these talks,” Spinosa said. “He is unilaterally taking the action of closing all ports and bears full responsibility for its effects on the American economy.”

Every day the ports are shut takes about a week for kinks and backlogs in the supply to get worked out, according to Robin Lanier, whose West Coast Waterfront Coalition represents importers and exporters.

SACRAMENTO — Nearly a year after the idea surfaced, then fell victim to repeated political, financial and legal delays, California is about to issue nearly $12 billion in municipal revenue bonds to pay off massive state bills from buying electricity last year.

California Treasurer Phil Angelides announced Friday an “anticipated schedule” for the state’s Department of Water Resources to issue the bonds to investors in October and November.

Earlier Friday, Angelides held a 30-minute conference call with major investors across the United States regarding what his office calls the largest municipal bond offering in U.S. history. At least 10 million California utility customers with the state’s three largest electric utilities will pay off the bonds with a portion of their bills.

State officials cautioned the payment system does not necessarily mean higher power bills in California, where costs for residential, industrial and commercial users are above the U.S. average.

At the state Department of Finance, which is still struggling with possible worsening financial forecasts even after closing a $98.9 billion budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year ending next June 30, spokeswoman Anita Gore said a bond issue backed by utility customer rates means one thing: cash.

“Certainly it helps the cash flow,” Gore said. “It brings cash to the general fund so we can pay our bills and provide services.”

State finance officials balanced the budget with assumptions they would get the bond money. They still hope to receive $9 billion more in refunds from energy sellers for alleged overcharges.

State attorney general files spam suit against Southern California company

The suit also alleges the company violated statutes against using false addresses in advertising, failing to disclose required information, engaging in untrue or deceptive advertising and engaging in unfair business competition.

Trustee to manage Napster

SAN JOSE — Napster Inc. showed signs of life Friday as the defunct song-swapping service, creditors and the U.S. Trustee’s Office agreed to appoint a trustee to oversee the company during bankruptcy reorganization.

The agreement, reached after creditors failed to find an executive willing to take over the company, will halt efforts by the U.S. trustee to convert the bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 liquidation.

The company has been leaderless since chief executive Konrad Hilbers — the sole director — quit earlier this month following an unsuccessful takeover by the record label Bertelsmann AG.

Napster also has received a letter of intent from an anonymous bidder for most of the company’s assets, said Rick B. Antonoff, an attorney representing Napster’s unsecured creditors committee.

SAN FRANCISCO — Michael Newdow, the California father who convinced a federal appeals court to declare the Pledge of Allegiance an unconstitutional endorsement of religion when recited in public classrooms, urged that court Friday to let its June 26 ruling stand.

Newdow, an atheist from Sacramento challenged the pledge on grounds that his daughter should not be subjected to the term “under God” being recited in public classrooms. Newdow’s briefs are in response to a June 27 ruling by the court in which it put its decision on hold to allow for fresh appeals.

Had the court not placed the ruling in a legal limbo, the decision would have stopped public schoolchildren from reciting the pledge in the nine western states that the nation’s largest appeals court covers. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

The child’s mother, the Elk Grove Unified School District, the federal government and California have also filed briefs with the court, urging the judges to follow an often-used court procedure and reverse the decision with either three or 11 judges.

There are no timelines for the court to act on the ruling that was condemned by President Bush and Congress. Legal scholars suggest a case could be made both ways on whether the ruling should stand.

The case began as a challenge to a 1954 decision by Congress to add the words “under God” to the pledge. But the lawsuit has sidestepped into a parental rights case over a custody dispute between Newdow and his 8-year-old child’s mother, Sandra Banning of Elk Grove.

In response to the ruling, Banning has asserted to the court that her daughter is not harmed by reciting the pledge and is not opposed to God. Banning, who now has full custody of the child, is urging the court to consider whether Newdow even had legal standing to bring the case on behalf of his daughter.

Newdow, however, wrote to the court that his daughter told him that she hoped he won his case.

Newdow told the court Friday he does have the right to sue on grounds he doesn’t think his daughter should be subjected to the pledge, even if he doesn’t have custody. He says he doesn’t lose his legal status as a father just because he doesn’t have custody.

While he is also urging the court to intervene in his custody dispute, he told the appeals court Friday that if Banning likes the pledge so much she can file her own lawsuit.

“Banning, if she feels it necessary, can certainly file her own lawsuit to have the words ’under God’ kept in the Pledge of Allegiance,” Newdow wrote. “In this action, however, she has no role to play.”

California, the federal government and the school district where the third-grader attends glommed onto Banning’s argument after she first publicized it July 11.

SAN FRANCISCO — The case of a Missouri man who stormed an airplane cockpit two years ago ended in a San Francisco federal courtroom.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup signed an order Thursday dismissing all charges against construction contractor Peter Bradley of Blue Springs, Mo., after confirmation he completed a diversion program.

Bradley was accused of breaking into the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines jet on March 16, 2000 and trying to grab the controls. But prosecutors agreed to drop the charges if Bradley completed a program of medical treatment and 200 hours of community service. They said he was suffering from a rare outbreak of encephalitis and did not know what he was doing.

Bradley, 41, faced federal charges of endangering and intimidating flight crew members. If convicted, he could have been sentenced to 10 years.

GARDEN GROVE — Republicans gathered for the first day of their semiannual state convention Friday hoping to give their beleaguered gubernatorial nominee, Bill Simon, a push to Election Day Nov. 5.

Some of the faithful arriving at the Hyatt Regency Orange County for the weekend event acknowledged that Simon faces a tough fight against his better-funded opponent, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans and infighting has divided the GOP.

But one thing seemed to give the delegates hope: Davis’ low approval ratings.

“I mean really, you don’t talk to people coming up and defending his character or defending his ideas,” said Roberta Wright, 61, of Redding, an alternate delegate to the convention. “I don’t know anything that people would defend on his part.”

It was a sentiment echoed by other delegates and one that’s borne out in polls in which the governor’s approval rating has hovered at or below 50 percent for more than a year.

That has also united the fractured GOP, which at its last convention six months ago was busy fighting over who would become the nominee: Simon, Secretary of State Bill Jones or former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the moderate choice who at that point had a comfortable lead in polls.

Delegates want to put that discord behind them this weekend. Riordan was nowhere to be seen and Jones, the Republicans’ only statewide officeholder, was being feted at a banquet Friday night.

Simon was scheduled to address the hundreds of delegates at a luncheon Saturday.

“This convention is important for our campaign because we need an excited Republican Party for us to be successful on Nov. 5,” the candidate’s chief consultant, Sal Russo, told a media briefing.

Simon’s campaign has stumbled since the primary, but earlier this month a state judge provided a victory by throwing out a $78 million civil fraud verdict against the candidate’s investment firm.

Now, Simon’s aides want to reintroduce the nominee to voters.

They unveiled a new ad to begin airing Tuesday that shows Simon strolling toward the camera and asking, “Do you know me? I survived millions of dollars of Gray Davis lies and distortions. I was a federal prosecutor under Rudy Giuliani ... I’m not a politician, but I will clean up Sacramento. I’m Bill Simon.”

The party is also trying to use the verdict reversal to collect more funds. A solicitation arrived in mailboxes in recent days labeled “Bill Simon Vindication Emergency Reply.”

Simon has struggled for donations and has been airing ads only sporadically, while Davis’ ads have been blanketing the airwaves since early June. While refusing to give details, Russo insisted that Simon, who was eight points behind Davis in the most recent independent poll, would have enough money to run a credible media campaign through the election.

DENVER — In a scene reminiscent of anti-war protests of the 1960s, at least 2,000 people gathered Friday outside a fund-raiser featuring President Bush to rally against a possible war in Iraq.

Chanting “No blood for oil,” “No war for votes” and “Hey hey, ho ho, this war machine has got to go,” the protesters marched from the Denver City and County Building four blocks to the hotel where Bush was speaking.

“I’m here to protest Bush’s coming war. It’s not inevitable, but the Bush administration is determined to start one,” said Maggie Boys, 48, a Boulder woman who attended anti-Vietnam war rallies in New Jersey when she was a teenager.

Except for a few skirmishes with police, the protests were peaceful. Denver Police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez said there were no arrests.

Inside the hotel, Bush spoke to a packed crowd at the $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Bob Beauprez, who is running in the 7th Congressional District. After the event, Bush went to Arizona.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Mexican Consulate hopes to serve its visitors better from their new quarters in the South of Market starting October.

The new building, located at 532 Folsom Street, just four blocks away from the Montgomery St. Bay Area Rapid Transit station is four times as big as the space the consulate occupies in the Flood Building on Market St., said spokesman Bernardo Mendez. The consulate will lease the new building and may eventually buy it.

“Many former consuls wished for this move but due to budget restrictions in Mexico it was not possible,” Mendez said. “It is a historical moment since we have occupied the Flood Building for 50 years.”

Eighty percent of the consulate’s 300 daily visitors go in search of a Mexican government-issued ID card or a passport, said Mendez. The consulate hopes that with more space, the lines formed by visitors will be minimal. Several business near the Flood Building complained that the lengthy lines were negatively affecting their sales.

The Flood Building, located near busy Union Square, holds a total of nine foreign consulates.

LOS ANGELES — Taiwan’s first lady Wu Shu-jen has canceled three events on the last leg of her trip to the United States because of exhaustion, a spokesman said Friday.

“Because of the long trip from Taiwan to Washington, to New York, to Los Angeles, she is a little bit exhausted,” said James Huang, her spokesman.

The frail but outspoken Wu canceled trips to the Getty Museum and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library but still planned to attend a banquet on Friday night, where more than 1,000 Taiwanese-Americans hoped to meet her.

The banquet was intended to show gratitude to the region’s Taiwanese-American community, the largest in the country, which has raised $1 million to help endow a new foundation promoting Taiwan’s image in this country.

The first lady arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon and had intended to attend a Dodgers baseball game to honor the team’s Chin-Feng Chen, the first Taiwanese player in the major leagues.

Instead, she was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for a checkup and then to her hotel, where she was in good condition under the care of her private doctors, Huang said.

Wu’s 10-day visit marks the first time Taiwan’s first lady has visited the United States in nearly half a century.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 when this country established relations with the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese government considers Taiwan a renegade province.

President Chen Shui-bian, Wu’s husband, is Taiwan’s second democratically elected leader and the first to break the Nationalist Party’s grip on the island’s presidency.

Wu uses a wheelchair and was paralyzed from the waist down when a truck ran over her three times in 1985 during Taiwan’s repressive martial era. She has said she believes she was the victim of a botched assassination attempt by the political rivals of her husband.

The plain, boxy appearance of Fantasy Building on 10th Street conceals the glamorous work that goes on inside. Most recently, the building’s studios have contributed to this month’s release of three films on DVD.

The Saul Zaentz Film Center, in the Fantasy Building, did post-production work on DVD versions of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “Amadeus” and “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” The films, all originally produced by Saul Zaentz, will hit stores this week with newly restored picture and soundtracks.

Sound is the Saul Zaentz Film Center’s ace in the hole. Hollywood recognizes the center’s facilities and skilled staff as a coveted place to mix movie sound, which the new DVDs highlight.

Film center staffer and sound mixer Mark Berger won an Academy Award in 1985 for his work on “Amadeus” (along with cohorts Thomas Scott, Todd Boekelheide, and Christopher Newman), one of the six Oscars the film collected.

The film of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart begged for a good sound mix. And to give a realistic sense of a live Mozart performance in 18th century Vienna, Berger and his team recorded audiences of all sizes – including silent-movie viewers at the Pacific Film Archive – to get sounds of people shuffling in their seats.

Berger dusted off the original sound to prepare the rerelease with more sophisticated sound technology than he had in 1984. To his surprise, he didn’t need to touch the music mix at all. “In spite of the technology, we got it right the first time.”

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” needed a bit more work. The negative was brought out for cleaning and restoration, but Berger said even the original production was raw at the time.

The film based on Ken Kesey’s novel about a convict who cons his way into cushy time at the psyche ward and tries in vain to beat the system won five Oscars in 1975, but was plagued with unavoidable sound distortion on the dialogue track – faint traces of tape hiss with camera noise and mono mixed in.

With 27 years of technological improvements and skills, Berger went back to the tapes to clean them up and create a stereo mix. No sound was added to the rerelease version, said Berger. “The philosophy was, the film was particular and it should stay that way. It should reflect the time it was made in,” he explained.

All sound manipulation took place in the mixing, not the editing. Nothing was added or subtracted, keeping true to the film’s original intentions.

Director Milos Foreman’s original idea was to make a strong distinction between the environment inside the hospital and the outside world, said Berger. When Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) coaxes his disoriented inmates out of the insular, claustrophobic hospital halls to play some basketball in the sun, Berger placed the outside sounds in an expansive stereo field.

Although the subtleties of the sound mix might be impressive heard through a movie theater’s speaker system, they could get lost on many people’s televisions at home. Even with the surround sound of new home entertainment setups, dynamics are the first to go. The loud isn’t too loud, and the quiet bits get lost. Berger’s digital re-mixes reflect the sound quality of high-end DVD players, while narrowing the dynamic range to fit their limitations.

Sound is usually the least popular aspect of movies, the one most easily forgotten outside the theater. These DVD releases are a testament that the renowned mixing stages and their captains in the Fantasy Building are the invisible hands guiding a filmmaker’s fictional tapestry.

Student conduct hearings for 32 pro-Palestinian protesters who participated in the April takeover of UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall start Monday amid controversy over the public’s right to observe them.

UC Berkeley officials are defending a decision to close the first hearing and move it away from the center of campus, arguing that the privacy measures are necessary to ensure order.

Students activists, meanwhile, say the university is simply attempting to block the public from viewing the process.

“They’re trying to move it away from the eyes of the campus community,” said Hoang Phan of Students for Justice in Palestine, which led the Wheeler Hall takeover last Spring.

A total of 79 protesters, including 41 students, were involved in the April 9 protest, calling on the nine-campus University of California system to divest from Israel.

The Alameda County District Attorney dropped criminal charges against the “Wheeler 79” in June, but the university has pursued student conduct charges.

Nine of the 41 students have agreed to an “informal resolution” of the charges, accepting a semester-long probation, while 32 have chosen to move forward with full hearings, opening themselves up to penalties as stiff as expulsion.

All students face charges of unauthorized entry to or use of university property, obstruction or disruption of teaching or other university activity, disturbing the peace and failure to comply with the directions of a university official.

Graduate student Roberto Hernandez, the subject of the first hearing Monday, faces an additional charge of physical or verbal abuse for allegedly biting a UC Berkeley police officer April 9.

Hernandez, who said he is innocent of all charges, condemned UC Berkeley professor David Zusman, chair of the student conduct hearing committee, for his decision to close the proceedings. Hernandez said his supporters would not have disrupted the hearing.

But university spokesperson Janet Gilmore said activists have made statements at student meetings about “rushing” the hearings.

Closing the proceedings, she said, is “an effort to ensure that the hearing will be fair and orderly.”

“That’s outrageous,” said Phan, of Students for Justice in Palestine, arguing that no statements about “rushing” the hearings were made. “I don’t know what they’re referring to.”

Students have also raised concerns about the composition of the committee that will run the student conduct hearing Monday.

Campus regulations call for a five-member committee composed of two faculty, two students and one staff member. If availability is a problem, the rules allow for alternates to fill in for regular committee members and for the panel to shrink to three members.

The university informed the students’ lawyers Thursday afternoon that the Hernandez committee would be composed of three faculty members, one of them a replacement for a student who could not serve.

Hernandez said the proposed panel was unacceptable, arguing that at least one student was necessary.

“The committee needs to be representative of this campus,” he said.

Gilmore said Friday that the university expected to have a three-member committee, with two faculty and one student, in place by Monday.

“This is part of a pattern of a lot of late changes,” said Phan, noting that the university did not inform students until Thursday that it was moving the hearing from Sproul Hall at the center of campus to the Clark Kerr facility, seven blocks south of the main campus on Warring Street.

“They’re trying to complicate things for us,” he said. “We have to scramble and call all of our witnesses and get them to another location.”

“It was just another effort to ensure that the hearing is fair and orderly,” Gilmore replied, discussing the shift to Clark Kerr.

Gilmore said students had circulated a flyer calling for a rally in Sproul Plaza outside the original hearing location.

For more than a quarter century native American Rosemary Cambra has provided a voice for her people. This week, Cambra, chairwoman for the Bay Area's Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, brought her message to Berkeley, where she urged the city to preserve and protect local burial grounds under University Avenue at the train tracks near Fourth Street.

“I am here to present the legal, cultural and spiritual concerns over this sacred site,” said Cambra at a West Berkeley Project Area Commission (WBPAC) meeting Thursday. “If we are not mindful of our culture and our language and our history, [the United States] government can eliminate [our culture].”

WBPAC members hope the meeting will establish a partnership between Berkeley and the Ohlone Tribe in which Cambra will serve as a consultant and protect the tribe’s interests – mainly respecting the dead – during a city development project near the 500-year-old Ohlone burial site.

The city is looking to build a transit hub at the west Berkeley rail stop, linking bus, ferry, train and taxi services. The purchase and restoration of the defunct Southern Pacific Rail Station would be part of the project.

While improvements are being made to the area, however, including leveling and paving surrounding roads, burial tombs would need to be protected, according to planners and archeologists.

A “treatment plan,” designed to preserve the burial grounds during construction, is being put together by city engineers and an archeologist selected by the Ohlone tribe, said Iris Starr, senior city planner.

To protect the sacred remains, much of the initial paving and leveling “will be done by hand, not by machines,” said Starr.

With the guidance of Cambra and Alan Leventhal, an ethnohistorian the Ohlone Tribe picked to consult with the city, planners hope paving and preservation will begin by December.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Starr said.

The burial remains will remain undisturbed beneath the new transit hub after it is built.

In addition to protecting the Ohlone burial site, planners hope to celebrate the tribe’s history and culture by including Ohlone art displays at the new transit hub.

One such display could consist of a large mural reflecting tribal life or a series of displays located inside a restored train station.

While she is pleased with the plans for commemorating the tribe, Cambra warns that preservation efforts should not to be taken lightly. Instead, she says, city and tribal leaders must work closely to establish a true partnership.

“I have a lot of concerns. I don't want to be a part of a lack of understanding when it comes to preservation,” Cambra stated, citing failed efforts in Emeryville to preserve and protect a submerged burial site. “If you don't have integrity, understanding and honesty, we don't want to be a part of it.”

As the representative of the Muwekma Ohlone, Cambra is all too familiar with disappointment. Having gone 100 years without recognition from the United States government as being an official native tribe, the Muwekma have taken matters into their own hands.

They have established both a strong legal team and a group of knowledgeable cultural historians to preserve the rights and heritage of the tribe.

Since 1989, the Muwekma have incurred more than $10 million in legal debt in their fight to gain status as a federally-recognized group. Though a ruling on Sept. 6 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs denied their latest request, the tribe continues to seek acknowledgment.

“One needs to defend our bloodline and take on any government when they try to terminate our culture, our history and our existence. We are the symbol and the example of what the U.S. government can do to a group if you let them,” Cambra said.

Berkeley mayor Shirley Dean and challenger Tom Bates, a former state Assemblyman, are within a few percentage points in the race for voter support, according to a poll commissioned by the mayor’s office.

Oakland-based pollster Lake Snell Perry and Associates found that Dean leads Bates 41 percent to 38 percent in the mayoral contest with 19 percent of the 400-person sample undecided. The survey’s margin of error was 4.9 percent.

I feel pretty good about the results,” said Dean. “We knew it was going to be a close race from the very beginning.”

In addition to identifying a virtually dead-even contest, Perry and Associates found 58 percent of those polled think the city is “heading in the right direction.” Twenty-six percent believe the city is “on the wrong track,” pollsters found.

“That’s the most important number in the whole poll,” said Dean. “People are happy with the way the city is being run and that’s what will make up their minds in the election.”

“It’s rare for a campaign to release a poll unless they’ve got problems,” Tramutola said, noting that polls are normally used internally to make strategic decisions. He suggested that the mayor is having difficulty raising money and the poll is being used to re-establish credibility for her campaign.

The Bates’ camp has raised roughly $100,000, according to Tramutola. Dean officials say they have at least that much money.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

“It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

“The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable — in just three minutes, the boat went down,” he said.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

“Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies,” he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal’s southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

“God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!” one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. “Stop crying!”

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

A squad of parking meter technicians is the city’s latest response to the continuing problem of meter failure. The move comes as vandalism and coin-recognition problems continue to drain city coffers and aggravate downtown drivers.

In addition to the repair team, police crackdowns on vandalism are up. A surveillance team arrested two more UC Berkeley students Tuesday morning for jamming meters on Bancroft Way.

Police charged Zhang Ying Yun, 20, and Shalomda Reynolds, 19, with two misdemeanors – vandalism and tampering with a coin-operated machine. The students face a six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The Berkeley Police Department has now arrested four people for jamming meters near UC Berkeley in a series of three undercover stings dating back to April.

City officials say vandalism, which has struck an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the city’s 3,200 meters, has cost the city roughly $1 million in repairs and lost revenue per year.

Patrick Keilch, deputy director of public works, said repeated vandalism may have contributed to another nagging meter problem – failure to read coins properly.

Lt. Bruce Agnew of the police department’s traffic bureau said residents using faulty meters get less time than they paid for, or no time at all.“That’s obviously frustrating for people,” he said.

Berkeley resident Marianne Robinson said she has dropped coins into meters only to see a “fail” message flash.

“It’s one of those things that gets to be a little maddening,” she said.

The city spent more than $1.5 million to replace all of its meters in 1998 and 1999, according to Keilch. Duncan Industries Parking Control Systems, of Harrison, Ark., supplied the vast majority of those meters.

Keilch said the city has reached an “amicable agreement” with Duncan Industries over the coin recognition problem. The company has provided free training to city staff in fixing meters and a limited number of free new parts.

“They want these meters to work as much as we do,” said Keilch.

Armed with the new parts and training, a full-time staff of four repair technicians are fixing city meters on a constant basis. Four of the city’s parking enforcement officers, or “meter maids,” also received the Duncan training and are conducting repairs on a part-time basis.

Grace Maguire, assistant to the city manager, said the undercover stings are part of a multi-pronged effort to thwart vandalism.

In July, as part of a six-month pilot program, the city placed green canvas bags over the 240 often-vandalized meters on Durant and Bancroft streets, between Dana Street and Piedmont Avenue, south of the UC Berkeley campus.

Officials said most of the vandalism has occurred in this area, where parking is scarce and garages are expensive.

The police department has dedicated one parking enforcement officer to patrol the relatively small area each day and issue $23 fines for people who exceed the parking time limit – usually one hour.

Officials hope the new system might yield more revenue than a series of meters that were rendered useless by repeated vandalism.

“We’re going to see how it works and gauge the effectiveness,” said Maguire.

The city has not seen a significant jump in tickets since the program went into effect in mid-July, Maguire said, but that was before the students returned to school. Maguire hopes to see improvement in the coming months.

A recently-passed City Council ordinance allowing traffic enforcement officers to issue multiple tickets for a car that remains in the same space too long should aid the effort.

Kathy Berger, executive director of the Telegraph Area Association, a local community development organization, said the pilot program has paid another kind of dividend.

Tight enforcement means that cars are moving in and out of the area quickly, Berger said. As a result, shoppers have an easier time finding parking spots and patronizing local businesses.

“It appears to be working extremely well,” she said. “It has actually helped some people’s businesses.”

For now, police department spokesperson Officer Mary Kusmiss said it is too early to measure the success of the city’s anti-vandalism efforts.

“But getting the information out there that there is regular enforcement and conducting these stings, hopefully will mitigate the problem,” she said.

Sacramento's “News 10” reports that 69 percent of voters would like to see Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo in the Oct. 7 televised debate. Camejo has deep roots in Berkeley, having been active as an anti-war activist in Berkeley in the 60s – active enough that the powers-that-be expelled him after he won the presidency for the Associated Students of the University of California.

Camejo espouses the positive platform of the Green Party and advocates for reforming our massive prison and criminal justice system, helping to fix our economy by making corporations responsible (not just accountable), and protecting our environment by having California take a leadership role in renewable energy.

Davis, always the politician, is aiming to smear Simon and to ignore Camejo. Davis has refused to debate Camejo. Politicians, however, should not control the media. Berkeley has always stood for free speech. To open up the debates to other views (and there is a mountain of other views between Davis and Simon), Camejo, who is the leading third party candidate, needs to be included. This is a very Berkeley issue.

If you agree, write the Los Angeles Times at letters@latimes.com

demanding that Peter Camejo be included in the Oct. 7 gubernatorial debate. Point out that it is not their decision, that the people of California want Peter in the debate and that they, as a media outlet serving the public, must respect the will of the electorate.

Transparent Theater strides into its second season sure-footedly with Alex Johnston’s two-person drama “Deep Space.”

Johnston is one of the new breed of Irish playwrights. Raised in Dublin, he sets “Deep Space” in shabby digs there. Those digs, sketched in scenic artist Ann Goldschmidt’s skewed platform topped by a couple of mismatched stuffed chairs and a block-and-board bookcase, are occupied by two aimless blokes named Keith and Jaco. The Bay Area has seen quite a few of their type on the stage lately, from Charlie and Jake in “Stones in His Pockets,” to Howie and Rookie in Magic Theater’s sizzling “Howie the Rookie.” By the evidence of these works, and Johnston’s, young Irish men of the middle and lower classes are as full of blarney as they’ve always been, but their blowhard cynicism masks a lingering pathos.

Rootless, they long for home; bewildered, they long for life to make sense; sarcastic, they long for love.

“Deep Space” consists of a series of encounters in that Dublin flat over a period of weeks. Seemingly the more relaxed and philosophical of the roomies, lean, pale, curly-haired Keith is college educated but jobless, killing time smoking, reading the paper, watching telly and talking about seeking work. Smaller, wiry, crop-haired Jaco is a working class guy, an electrician who wriggles in his chair like a tadpole in a womb, his physical restlessness reflecting itchy longings. Crudely but touchingly articulate, he’s crazy about women, and he wants to find Miss Right. “I’m too old to do this anymore!” he cries.

Women are a main theme of Keith and Jaco’s conversation, particularly one named Fionnula. She’s no dummy. “There’s lots of boys out there,” we’re told she observes, “but there’s not many men.” Keith knew her first, and though he claims not to be interested in her, he lies to Keith about her being a lesbian.

Keith meets her by chance and falls into bed with her.

He falls in love with her, too.

Both men know she was once raped. She tells Jaco a story about a friend who was raped. That, and the play’s opening talk about “paradigm shifts” in sexual roles, lays the groundwork for dark developments. “Deep Space” is good at letting those developments sneak up. At first the play seems as cheery and aimless as its two characters, but Fionnula gradually comes between them, leading to a powerful climax of twin betrayals that’s unexpected yet convincing.

Love doesn’t always lead to tenderness, and (though it’s politically incorrect to say so) rape may not be solely an act of violence.

Transparent Theater gives Johnston’s spare, moving play a restrained and beautiful production. David Robertson provides mood-enhancing lighting, and Patrick Kaliski adds effective sound. Ryan Montgomery directs with a fine feeling for the nuances of the story, and the two actors are appealingly right. Drew Khalouf gives Keith’s existential torpor a tragic edge, and as Jaco Jason Frazier is both hilariously fidgety and touching.

We never learn quite what brought this mismatched pair together, but the play, and the actors, make it clear what sunders them. Transparent Theater has converted a former church at Ashby Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way into a fine and welcome addition to the East Bay’s playhouses, and “Deep Space” is a good reason to visit it.

Navigate your way through legal issues when living with cancer or any serious illness. Panel presentation on employment, insurance and public benefits and one-on-one sessions with attorneys. Please, pre-register.

601-4040, Ext. 102 for information

or Ext. 103 to register

Free

Garage Sale/ Car Wash

Belize/ Berkeley Scouts

10 to 2 p.m.

Epworth UMC, 1953 Hopkins St.

International exchange fundraising effort for scouts.

525-6058

A Forum on the Arts with the Berkeley Mayoral Candidates

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St.

558-1381

Free

Sunday, Sept. 29

Tibetan Buddhism

“Healing Mind”

6 p.m.

Tibetan Nyingma Institute

1815 Highland Place

Sylvia Gretchen discusses how the teachings cultivate the mind and redefine what healing means.

843-6812

Free

“Iron Chef” Style Cook-Off

3 to 4 p.m.

(followed by reception, 4 to 6 p.m.)

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto

1919 Fourth St.

In this “Crabby Chef” Competition 2002, top East Bay chefs vie for this year’s title by creating the tastiest crab dish. Master of Ceremonies will be KGO-AM’s Gene Burns.

City of Berkeley

2002 Public Art Competition

1 to 3 p.m.

Berkeley Central Public Library

2090 Kittredge St.

A public art informational workshop will be open to all artists regarding public art site proposals.

981-6100

Free

Friday, Sept. 27

The Cracked Normans,

Paradigm & Soul Americana

9:30 p.m. (21 and over)

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave.

841-1424

$5.

Eric Bogle

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com

$16.50 in advance. $17.50 at door.

Fair Weather, Liars

Academy and Open Hand

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5.

Reggae Angels with Earl Zero

and Jah Light Music

9:30 p.m.

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave.

$15 door. 12 and under free.

Saturday, Sept. 28

Barry & Alic Oliver

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$16.50 in advance. $17.50 at door.

From Monument to Masses,

Victory at Sea and Yesterday’s Kids

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5.

Sunday, Sept. 29

Si Kahn

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Cellist Gianna Abondolo

4 p.m.

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St.

Classical favorites and original

compositions for cello.

559-6910

$10 general. 18 and under free.

Weber Iago and Harvey Wainaple

4:30 p.m.

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St.

845-5373

$10-$15.

\

David Friesen and Uwe Kropinski

8 p.m.

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St.

845-5373

$10-$15.

Blowing Zen: A Performance of Shakuhachi

7:30 p.m.

St. John’s Presbyterian Church

2626 College Ave.

528-2027

$12 at door. Children $5. Seniors $10.

Chamber Music

4 to 5:15 p.m.

Crowden Music Center 1475 Rose St.

Gianna Abondolo & Friends

celebrate the release of their

classical and jazz CD.

559-6910

$10. 18 and under free.

Tuesday, Oct. 1

Toshi Reagon

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Wednesday, Oct. 2

Hookslide

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Thursday, Oct. 3

Pete & Joan Wernick featuring Dr. Banjo

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

"Balancing Acts"

Through Oct. 10

Gallery 555, 555 12th St.,

Oakland City Center

Oakland's 'Third Thursday' art night features Ann Weber's works made of cardboard.

http://www.oaklandcitycenter.com.

Free.

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”

Through Oct. 30, Mon.-Fri.,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Civic Center Building

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor

Featuring 40 photographs

by Berkeley artist David Bacon.

834-3663, Ext. 338, uchanse@secondharvest.org

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work

Though Oct. 13

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.

The St. Mary’s High girls’ volleyball team rode a quick start and some great serving to their first Bay Shore Athletic League victory on Thursday, beating Holy Names High, 15-9, 15-5, 15-13.

The Panthers (3-1 overall, 1-1 BSAL) served up 19 aces in Thursday’s match, accounting for 42 percent of their points. The rest of the offense came from the trio of Natalie Bogan, Jazmin Pratt and Martha Ryan, who combined for 32 kills as St. Mary’s simply overpowered the Monarchs.

“Today was awesome, just unbelievable,” St. Mary’s head coach Cherise Revell said. “We’ve been working a lot on our serves in practice, and it showed today.”

Pratt blamed an earlier loss to St. Joseph High on poor serving and said the team had some extra motivation because Thursday was the Panthers’ home opener.

“We really wanted to start off strong in our first home game,” said Pratt, who had 14 kills and seven aces. “All our work paid off today.”

St. Mary’s got off to a scorching start, running up a 10-0 lead in the first game. Holy Names had serious trouble passing the Panthers’ serves to their setter, either missing altogether or putting the ball right at the net where Bogan was waiting for a block. Although the Monarchs managed a seven-point run of their own to pull within 11-8, they didn’t have the firepower to overcome such a big deficit.

The Panthers started slowly in the next two games, getting behind 2-5 and 1-4, respectively. They had no problem coming back in the second game, scoring 13 straight points to take a 2-0 lead in games, but the final game was a different story. They handed Holy Names 12 points on errors and looked as if they would need a fourth game to put the Monarchs away.

In stepped Pratt. After two kills for points to keep her team close, she fired her jump-serve for three straight aces to put the visitors back on their heels. When another point kill by Pratt made the score 13-12 in Holy Names’ favor, the Monarchs fell apart, making two hitting errors and a bad pass to finish the match.

“[Holy Names] just got their momentum going in the last game,” Ryan said. “But we were juiced all day, and we weren’t going to lose.”

While Berkeley’s two primary mayoral candidates say they expect a tight election this November, the race for political endorsements has been a landslide.

Progressive candidate Tom Bates, with ties and personal bonds he forged during 20 years as a state Assemblyman, has won the support of nearly every major local interest group and politician.

Heavy hitters such as U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, state Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D- Berkeley, are supporting bates. The Sierra Club, the National Organization for Women, Green Party of Alameda, Democratic Party of Alameda, and Alameda Council of Labor have endorsed him. All told more than 300 people and organizations back Bates.

“I’ve got their support because of what I’ve done in the past and my history of providing good leadership,” Bates said. He says that Mayor Shirley Dean failed while in office eight years to develop the same relationships with local leaders.

Dean, however, said Bates’ endorsements were about political ties than political record.

“I do believe that I am up against a political machine that wants to control everything in the city,” she said. Dean represents a moderate faction in the City Council, which is the minority group by one-vote.

Dean has won the support of state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, the Berkeley Democratic Club, and more than 30 neighborhood activists. The police and fireman’s unions, as well as an offshoot of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, all of which supported Dean in her past two successful campaigns, have not yet made an endorsement.

Bruce Cain, a UC Berkeley professor with the political science department said Bates’ endorsements should give him an advantage but will not guarantee him victory in November.

“At a local level, it can matter if groups are willing to do work and throw resources into the race,” he said. “Often in a low turnout election, if interest groups get the vote out, it will make the difference.”

Bates agreed and said his supporters are more than just names to put on campaign fliers. “Groups are making phone calls to members and walking precincts,” he said, adding that Sierra Club will make a pro-Bates mailing to its estimated 5,000 Berkeley members.

Dean, meanwhile, said she doesn’t need the support of leading politicians and interest groups to win the election. “The neighborhood knows my record and neighborhood support is the most important type of endorsements there are,” she said.

Neighbors of UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium should quit their whining. Just because seven days a year they have to carefully time their shopping trips, they want the university to throw away 70 years of tradition and build a whole new stadium, inconveniencing tens of thousands of students, Cal fans, and alumni. Unless these residents moved in prior to 1928, they knew exactly what they were getting into by living near a stadium. Seven days of inconvenience is not that many, especially if you're told in advance exactly when they're going to happen.

I'm glad the university has control of the situation. The Hayward fault is a definite concern that should be taken under consideration, but my vote is to keep the stadium right where it is, if for no other reason to keep these crybabies in a tizzy.

The Berkeley High boys’ water polo team was shut out in both the second and fourth quarters against Bishop O’Dowd on Thursday, as the Dragons were twice able to wipe out Berkeley leads for a 9-7 win at Willard Middle School in Berkeley. The pool at Willard is only 3 feet deep on one end, which happened to be the end the Yellowjackets were shooting at in both quarters they were blanked.

“[O’Dowd’s] goalkeeper was tall, and in the shallow cage he could just jump and cover the entire goal,” Berkeley’s Andy Turner said. “Our shot selection started to be off, and we just let the pressure get to us.”

The Jackets (3-6 overall, 1-1 ACCAL) had one-goal leads at the end of both the first and third quarters, thanks in large part to Turner and Dominic Cathey. Turner had three goals and an assist, while Cathey contributed two assists and a goal.

But O’Dowd (4-5, 1-0) got the last laugh. Down 7-5 with just seconds left in the third quarter, it looked as if Berkeley would have the momentum heading into the final seven minutes of play. But an apparent O’Dowd shot clock violation turned into a Dragon goal as no one secured the ball as both teams headed back down to the other end. When neither referee blew the whistle to stop play, however, an O’Dowd player alertly beat Berkeley goalkeeper Sammy Hammer to the ball and scored an easy goal, cutting the deficit to one.

The fourth quarter was all Dragons, as captain Cason Schmit returned from a third-quarter ejection to create havoc in front of the Berkeley net. Schmit’s presence opened up shots for his teammates, and Hammer couldn’t stop every shot thrown at him.

The tying goal came from a bit of luck for the Dragons. Patrick Bobb had the ball near the side of the Berkeley goal, but it slipped out of his hand and behind him. The defender dove for the ball, but Bobb reached back blindly and came up with it instead, leaving him alone with Hammer for an easy score.

Berkeley had a golden opportunity seconds later as O’Dowd goalkeeper Elliot Carney was ejected for an intentional foul. But the Jackets took a needlessly quick shot during the resulting three-on-one that went over the bar, releasing Carney from the sideline.

With a minute remaining, O’Dowd’s Jim Bowerman had the ball near midfield with the shot clock winding down and lasered in a desperation shot. It skipped off the water and deflected off of Hammer’s outstretched arm for an 8-7 O’Dowd lead. The Jackets couldn’t get a shot off on the next possession, and Bobb scored a fastbreak goal to put the game away.

One day after reinstating Berkeley High School’s African-American studies department, Superintendent Michele Lawrence said Thursday that she will consider bringing back the English language learners, visual arts and performing arts departments.

Before this week, the district was poised to fold the African-American studies and English language learners programs into other, unspecified departments and to combine the visual and performing arts programs into one department under the terms of an Aug. 20 agreement with the teacher’s union.

The move would not have affected the African-American studies, ELL or arts classes offered at the high school, but would have eliminated department chairs and, many feared, meeting time for teachers.

When details of the agreement surfaced Tuesday, there was a public outcry over the planned consolidation of the 34-year-old African-American studies department, leading to a reinstatement of the department at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night.

Lawrence said the district will have to work with the Berkeley Federation of Teachers union to hammer out the details of reinstating African-American studies and any other department.

“I’m certain we’ll have to go back to the table,” she said.

BFT President Barry Fike, who has signaled a willingness to renegotiate, said the union is ready to return to the bargaining table and reinstate the departments.

“We’re very pleased that there seem to be indications from the district that they are willing to renegotiate,” he said.

One sticking point may be job descriptions and pay for the returning department chairs.

The Aug. 20 agreement laid out 17 different duties for department chairs, ranging from ordering books to supporting teachers, and provided stipends of $5,000, $3,750 and $2,250, depending on the size of a chair’s department.

Smaller departments, African-American studies and ELL, were to lose their chairs. District officials pushed for this reduction in the total number of chairs, during the August negotiations, because they hoped to save several thousand dollars for a district $3.9 million in debt.

Lawrence suggested Thursday that the district was not interested in offering costly stipends to any returning department chairs – in African-American Studies, ELL or the arts – in light of the budget problems.

Robert McKnight, chair of the African-American studies department, said he could care less about the stipend, as long as the program remains in place.

“I don’t have a job,” explained McKnight, who led the reinstatement charge. “I’m on a mission.”

But Fike said he was concerned that any agreement calling on chairs of small departments to perform extra duties without adequate pay could set a dangerous precedent.

Still, Fike said the overriding concern for the union is bringing back the consolidated departments. He does not expect the salary issue to get in the way.

“I’m confident that it’s not a stumbling block that can’t be overcome,” he said.

I want to express my strong support for the remarks of Sen. Tom Daschle condemning President George W. Bush's politicization of the proposed Department of Homeland Defense during his recent campaign fund-raising speech in Trenton, N.J. Mr. Bush and his allies in the House and Senate are gambling unconscionably with the world's future, while attempting to use the debate over a resolution to authorize the use of military force against Iraq for mere political gain before the November mid-term elections. Given Mr. Bush's past record of desertion from a Texas Air National Guard post, which he obtained by political influence (see awolbush.com), his willingness to put American military service members' lives in jeopardy is hypocritical and immoral.

It is particularly appalling to note that the Bush administration has been planning for a war against Iraq since well before the events of Sept. 11, 2001 (see Sept. 22, 2002 New York Times article, “Bush's Push on Iraq at U.N.: Headway, Then New Barriers”). This makes it clear that the supposed urgency to take military action against Iraq is not rooted in any new intelligence information or threat posed by Iraq toward the United States. The administration has embarked on an extremely risky “wag the dog” foreign policy that is dominated by purely political considerations, rather than national security.

I urge Congress to resist the Bush administration's attempt to railroad the U.S. into an unnecessary war with Iraq that would undoubtedly kill thousands of innocent civilians, as well as unforeseeable numbers of American and allied men and women of the armed services. The consequences of such a war are far from predictable and would likely be disastrous. Sen. Daschle is right to demand an apology from President Bush for his egregiously insulting and partisan comments during his recent speech in Trenton, N.J.

When Washington State takes the field against Cal on Saturday, there’s a chance the Cougars might be missing their Heisman-hopeful quarterback, Jason Gesser. But the Bears say they don’t really care.

Gesser suffered separated cartilage in his ribs last week in a win over Montana State and is listed as questionable for Saturday’s game at Memorial Stadium. A second-team All-Pac-10 selection last season, Gesser is one of the nation’s top quarterbacks.

But Gesser’s backup, junior Matt Kegel, is no slouch himself. Although he has limited game experience, there was talk before last season that Kegel might win the starting job away from Gesser. That obviously didn’t happen and Gesser established himself with an outstanding season, but Kegel likely wouldn’t be a huge step down if he were to play.

“They run the same offense with both guys,” Cal head coach Jeff Tedford said. “Gesser’s a slippery guy, but Kegel’s athletic also. It’s not like a big switch with him in the game.”

But Kegel is limping this week as well, as he hurt his knee against Montana State. The third-string quarterback is redshirt freshman Chris Hurd, a Deer Valley High (Antioch) graduate. Hurd finished the Cougars’ game last week and is taking the majority of the snaps in practice this week in case he has to play against the Bears.

Washington State head coach Mike Price said Gesser will most likely start the game, although how long he can go will be up to Price himself.

“[Gesser] is an inspiring guy, and he wants to play no matter what. Even if he’s in pain, he’s playing,” Price said. “The only way he’s not playing is if he’s going to get hurt more by playing. Then it will be my call, not his.”

No matter which of the three quarterbacks ends up playing most of the game, the Bears know they’ll have to get pressure on him to be successful against Washington State’s explosive spread attack.

Cal defensive tackle Daniel Nwangwu said the defensive linemen won’t be paying much attention to the number on the quarterback’s chest; they just want to make sure that jersey just gets dirty.

“I just want to get to the quarterback no matter who he is,” defensive tackle Daniel Nwangwu said. “To concentrate on doing something different with a different quarterback in there is a waste of time.”

Cornerback Jemeel Powell agreed with Nwangwu.

“Who’s at quarterback doesn’t matter to me,” Powell said. “If we don’t cover correctly, any quarterback will hit the open man.”

Those men Powell referred to will be Washington State’s impressive stable of receivers. With Mike Bush, a 6-foot-5 former basketball player, and Florida State transfer Devard Darling leading the charge, the Cougars have one of the most athletic and versatile sets of receivers in the country. They all can go over the middle for short passes or deep for big gains, and Bush excels at winning jump balls away from smaller cornerbacks.

Tedford said he doesn’t expect to completely stop the Washington State passing game, which has been highly effective during Price’s 14 years as the school’s head coach.

“I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to shut down their receivers,” Tedford said. “We might be step for step with them, but they’re still going to make plays on the football.”

Berkeley may be the next city in line to install cameras on streets or traffic signals to protect pedestrians.

At a transportation forum at the Willard Middle School Wednesday, Berkeley transportation head Peter Hillier, said he is hoping to start discussion by next summer about bringing traffic cameras to Berkeley.

“I think they’ve been extremely successful in reducing red light running or speeding,” he said. Similar cameras have been installed in other United States cities, including San Francisco, and are prevalent in Europe and Canada.

Several people, however, cringed at the idea of cameras monitoring public streets.

“Surveillance cameras ... you know that sounds too much like ‘1984,’ It’s crazy,” said Ted Chabasinski of the 2900 block of Florence Street.

Hillier, though, maintained that the cameras would be used to punish dangerous drivers, not to spy on residents.

If Berkeley decides to install traffic cameras it will have several options.

The most common type of camera is attached to a traffic signal and only takes photos of cars running a red light, Hillier said. Other cameras gauge speed and are installed in the sidewalk or kept inside a police car. A new traffic signal camera that tickets for both speeding and red light running is on the market, he said.

Hillier said that public acceptance is stronger for cameras that monitor for red light violations than it is for cameras that watch for speeders, which is a more common offense.

If community opposition doesn’t derail cameras, cost might.

The city would have to spend about $100,000 to install any type of camera at just a few intersections, he said.

Despite initial suspicion by some forum attendees, Hillier asked residents to withhold judgment until the idea is hashed out.

“What is critical is to thoroughly research the practice,” he said. “If there is strong documented evidence of a benefit then the idea may seem better to people.”

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has advocated traffic safety measures for his district, said he was open to the limited use of cameras.

“If they were surveillance cameras to turn us into a police state, that would be a problem,” he said. “But when it’s a picture of a license plate, that might be OK.”

I wonder why Snehal Shingavi and others are so paranoid (Daily Planet, Sept. 20) about their rhetoric being monitored. I would hope instructors at UC Berkeley base their class material on truth, avoiding personal slants. If so, why are they up in arms when someone wants to quote them? Should they not be willing to stand behind and support the messages they promote in the classroom? Apparently Snehal is afraid to be challenged, according to his English class’ guideline advising “conservative thinkers” to enroll in a different section. Snehal seems to be the only one silencing speech, not those who wish to reveal biases in university classrooms.

The Panthers fall in BSAL play as Salesian wins three singles matches and a doubles match. Maren Sagat wins for St. Mary’s in the top singles match. Both teams are now 1-1 in league play.

Girls golf - St. Mary’s 329, Berkeley 330

The Panthers take down Berkeley in a cross-town rivalry matchup at Mira Vista Country Club. Berkeley’s Cameron Wilson leads the pack with a 59, but the Panthers win by one stroke. St. Mary’s improves its record to 3-1, while Berkeley drops to 2-2.

Girls tennis - Berkeley 4, El Cerrito 3

The Yellowjackets improve to 4-1 in ACCAL play with a win over El Cerrito (3-2 ACCAL). Berkeley sweeps the top three singles matches and the team of Ari Anisimov and Rachel Leibman wins the third doubles match to clinch the victory.

Girls volleyball - Berkeley def. De Anza 15-6, 15-2, 15-0

Berkeley (3-5 overall, 2-0 ACCAL) still hasn’t lost an ACCAL match in three seasons as the Yellowjackets notch another easy victory in league play. Vanessa Williams has six kills and eight digs for Berkeley, while Nadia Qabazard pitches in with seven digs and four aces. Setter Danielle Larue nearly serves out the final game, racking up 14 straight points before a Berkeley error ends her streak.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel tried to kill the mastermind of the Hamas bombing campaign Thursday, firing two missiles into a car in crowded Gaza City. Two bodyguards died and 35 bystanders were wounded in the helicopter attack, but the fate of the Palestinian militant remained uncertain. Hamas promised revenge.

A senior Palestinian security official said the 37-year-old Mohammed Deif escaped with moderate injuries. Israeli police sources said the Israeli military told them Deif — atop Israel’s wanted list for years — was killed. The military had no public comment.

Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi said Deif was not even in the car. But he said the group would avenge the attack nevertheless. “We will hit Tel Aviv. We will hit everywhere.”

In other violence, four Palestinians — including two gunmen, a civilian and a baby — and one Israeli were reported killed. Israel maintained its stranglehold on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah in defiance of Tuesday’s U.N. Security Council resolution to end the siege.

Two helicopters appeared in the sky over Gaza just after 1:30 p.m., firing missiles that blew apart a green Mercedes sedan and sent a plume of white smoke over the Sheik Radwan neighborhood.

“Suddenly we heard the sound of a big explosion,” said Mohammed Hajar, a hairdresser working in the area. “When I ran out, a second explosion took place.”

Blood, body parts and shrapnel were strewn across a wide area and nearby windows were shattered. A large crowd, confused and angry, gathered as rescue workers led the wounded to ambulances.

One man leapt on a car and shouted, “God is great.”

Hamas sources identified the two dead men as members of Hamas, Abdel Rahim Hamdan, 27, and Issa Abu Ajra, 29. Rantisi said they were Deif’s bodyguards.

More than a dozen children were wounded in the attack, the latest in a series of assaults the Israeli military calls “targeted killings” of Palestinians.

The most controversial, a strike in Gaza that killed Hamas militant Salah Shehadeh, also killed nine children and five adult civilians.

In the past two years, at least 78 wanted Palestinians and 52 bystanders have been killed in such attacks, which the Palestinians deride as a policy of assassination. Human rights groups have condemned the policy.

“Today’s attack is another example that shows clearly that the Israeli army doesn’t care about the life of the innocent Palestinian victims,” said Samieh Mouhsen of the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights. “It constitutes a policy of lawless disregard for the most fundamental human rights, the right to life.”

Israel says the targeted killings are its best means of preventing terror attacks, and accuses Arafat’s Palestinian Authority of doing nothing against the radical groups and even encouraging them. Palestinians argue Israel’s travel restrictions and military strikes have left their security services powerless.

Israelis accuse Deif of having a role in dozens of suicide attacks over the past six years. He survived an Israeli airstrike earlier this year.

Earlier strikes on top Hamas figures have led to increased violence. When Israel killed Deif’s mentor Yehiyeh Ayyash in 1996, Hamas responded with four suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis.

An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Deif had served as head of Hamas military wing after the killing of Ayyash. He surrendered the position after the more charismatic and ideological Shehadeh was released from a Palestinian jail in mid-2000. Deif took over again three days after Shehadeh’s killing, he said.

Israel has long pressed Palestinians to seize Deif, and accused Arafat of sheltering him. Hamas, however, often as been at odds with Arafat.

Palestinian officials arrested and held Deif for several months until December 2000. The Palestinians said he escaped. Israeli officials said his jailers set him free.

Late Thursday, about 3,000 Hamas supporters demonstrated near the site of the attack. Organizers said the purpose was to give thanks for Deif’s safety.

BERKELEY – The University of California at Berkeley is working to be at the forefront of the battle against bioterrorism with the help of a new $2.8 million federal grant.

The three-year grant will fund a new Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. The campus will be host to one of four new academic centers for public health preparedness.

The others – at the University of Michigan, University of Oklahoma, and the University of South Carolina – are all a part of the $2.9 billion bioterrorism initiative launched by President George W. Bush earlier this year.

“The weaknesses of the nation's public health infrastructure were made clear in last year's anthrax attacks,” said Arthur Reingold, head of epidemiology at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

“We learned that we need to improve coordination and communication throughout the public health system, from the local to the national level. These centers for public health preparedness are a major step forward in reaching that goal,” he said.

As part of this new initiative, these centers will provide public health and law enforcement workers with training in response to bioterrorism incidents and naturally occurring infectious disease outbreaks.

Additionally, the UC Berkeley campus will strive to improve communications with the media, by collaborating with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A training program targeting journalists in local and regional news organizations will be part of this new program.

"This is a primary example of the school's commitment to moving the knowledge base from publication of research to public action,'' said Stephen Shortell, professor and dean of the School of Public Health.

A resident of the 1800 block of Arlington Court called police shortly after midnight Wednesday morning after noticing that several lamps were missing from his carport and that a suspicious gold Cadillac was parked outside his house. The car left before police arrived, but at 5:25 a.m., a beat officer noticed a gold Cadillac on the 1900 block of El Dorado Avenue. The driver had the missing lamps as well as methamphetamine. Kevin Tugwell, 39, was arrested for drug possession and burglary.

Suspected Arson

An employee at American Medical Forensic Specialists on the 2600 block of Telegraph Avenue reported a fire Wednesday morning in a nearby recycling bin, police said, who arrived to find the bin filled with charred paper and water.

Burglary

A woman’s purse was stolen from the 2200 block of Shattuck Avenue, police said. The purse contained cash, a cell phone, keys and a checkbook. Police have no suspects.

OAKLAND – A leader in Oakland's Nation of Islam community appeared briefly in Alameda County Superior Court this morning but did not enter plea to a charge that he allegedly molested a 13-year-old girl 20 years ago.

Yusef Bey, 66, entered the courtroom with his attorney, Andrew Dosa of Alameda, and an entourage of about 20 young, African-American men dressed in suits and bow ties.

Bey, wearing a black pinstriped suit, black bowtie and fez, did not enter a plea during his three-minute appearance before Judge Allan D. Hymer in Oakland. He also waived a reading in open court of the charge against him.

The arraignment was put off for a week, until Oct. 3.

A complaint filed Sept. 18 charges Bey with one felony count of committing lewd act on a child under 14 in September 1981. He surrendered to police on Sept. 19 and immediately posted $50,000 bail, police said.

According to police, a woman approached the authorities in early June to report that Bey had allegedly molested her about 20 years ago. She told police that she was 13 when she gave birth to a child allegedly fathered by Bey in June 1982.

DNA samples confirm that Bey is the child's father, police said.

Following the brief appearance Thursday, the same cadre of young men whisked Bey out of the courtroom and down the hallway to an elevator. The men shielded Bey from about a half-dozen television cameras attempting to film him.

In response to a reporter's request for comment, Bey raised an index finger and said, “No comment yet.” His attorney also declined to speak to reporters.

LIVERMORE – Federal officials announced today that four Bay Area scientists have been recognized with awards for their work in atomic energy.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham named seven winners of the prestigious E.O. Lawrence Award, including the four local scientists.

They are Bruce T. Goodwin and Benjamin D. Santer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Keith O. Hodgson of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University, and Saul Pearlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley.

Goodwin, a physicist, will receive the award in the national security category for his work on the complex dynamics of triggers of thermonuclear weapons.

Santer, also a physicist, was recognized in the environmental science and technology category for his research into the effects of human activity on the Earth's climate.

Hodgson, a chemist and structural biologist, won in the chemistry category for his contributions to the investigation of biological structure and function.

Pearlmutter, an astrophysicist, will receive the award in physics for his discovery through study of supernovae that the expansion of the universe is speeding up rather than slowing down.

The E.O. Lawrence award was established in 1959 to honor the memory of Dr. Ernest Orlando Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron particle accelerator.

Winners each receive a gold medal, a citation, and $25,000. The prizes will be awarded during a ceremony to take place in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28.

A grant infusion of more than $770,000 was set aside today for Contra Costa County parks and public access areas thanks to measures taken by the state Coastal Conservancy.

With funds made available through Proposition 12, California's largest park bond to date, county park officials will invest in both renovation and improvement projects at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in Antioch and the Martinez waterfront, according to a Coastal Conservancy spokesman.

The spokesman said that the conservancy will provide the East Bay Regional Park District with $429,000 to improve the museum and visitor center at the Hazel-Atlas Mine, a historic landmark within the Black Diamond Mines Park.

Additionally, the conservancy has slated $29,500 for necessary renovations to Black Diamond's historic Rose Hill Cemetery, which over the years has become an unfortunate gathering spot for vandals.

The city of Martinez will also receive $250,000 to construct a 433-foot shoreline retaining wall necessary to protect the waterfront's planned plaza and restored marina. The marina project is expected to revitalize the recreational and commercial usage of the city's waterfront.

Man who led police on

U.S. 101 chase killed self

NOVATO – Authorities say a man who led police on a chase on northbound U.S. Highway 101 in Marin County early Thursday apparently shot himself to death after driving a stolen pickup truck off the road near the state Highway 37 interchange.

Novato Police Capt. Reginald Lyles said a shotgun or rifle was found in the white Chevrolet pickup and the man had suffered massive head wounds.

The California Highway Patrol this afternoon identified the victim as Raymond Kobzeff, 44, of Petaluma.

Authorities say Kobzeff apparently wanted police to shoot him because he told a U.S. Park Police officer who initially confronted him at 3:04 a.m. in the Marin Headlands, “You will have to shoot me.”

U.S. Park Service Police Officer Michael Griffin approached Kobzeff at Conzelmann and McCullough roads when he determined that the 1990 Chevrolet pickup had been stolen in Petaluma and allegedly saw drug paraphernalia inside the truck.

Griffin was dragged several feet when Kobzeff started driving away as the officer reached into the truck to try to shut off the engine, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol joined Griffin in the eight-minute, 12-mile pursuit through San Rafael. Authorities said Kobzeff drove as fast as 100 mph before slowing down to 40 mph and pulling off the highway near the state Highway 37 interchange in Novato.

A special response team from the Novato Police Department searched the marshy, brushy area for Kobzeff, who at first was believed to have fled the truck.

LOS ANGELES — Millions of Americans could see the possibility of home ownership slip away if a delicate balance of interest rates, personal income and real estate prices shifts, an economic report released Thursday said.

Home prices compared to personal incomes are near record highs, but Americans have been able to keep buying thanks to the lowest mortgage interest rates in 40 years.

If mortgage rates rise, or housing prices grow faster than incomes, the ability to own a home will disappear for many, according to the Milken Institute, an independent Santa Monica-based think tank.

An immediate shift is unlikely, said the authors of the study, economists Susanne Trimbath and research analyst Juan Montoya.

“Since interest rates are not expected to rise in the near future, and income is experiencing strong growth, the demand that supports the current crisis can be expected to remain stable for the near term,” the study said.

But interest rates will eventually rise and U.S. policy-makers will face a growing challenge as more Americans get shut out of the real estate market, the report said.

Immigrants urge Davis to sign bill for undocumented drivers

SAN DIEGO — Immigrants-rights advocates want Gov. Gray Davis to approve a bill that would enable some illegal immigrants to obtain California driver’s licenses though it would not affect most of them.

Supporters say all California drivers would benefit by allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain the licenses they need to get auto insurance. Others complain it encourages illegal immigration and grants a state privilege to lawbreakers.

But both sides agree the bill, which faces a deadline of midnight Monday to win Davis’ approval, sets criteria unattainable to most illegal immigrants. It requires them to have a federal taxpayer identification number and have started the process to obtain legal immigration status.

“This is definitely a high hurdle to meet,” Christian Ramirez, director of American Friends Service Committee, a San Diego group which assists immigrants, said Thursday. “We’re obviously not very happy. ... But we feel this is a step forward.”

The bill’s author, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, estimates as many as 1 million of the roughly 3 million undocumented immigrants in the state would be eligible to apply for licenses. But David Galaviz, Cedillo’s legislative director, acknowledged Thursday the actual number could be far lower.

Davis signs bill to reduce

childhood lead poisoning

SACRAMENTO— Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill on Thursday that makes the presence of lead hazards in homes a violation of the state’s housing law.

Lead poisoning, which is often caused by exposure to lead-based paint, can lead to serious health problems and lifelong learning disabilities. Lead hazards include deteriorating lead-based paint, lead-tainted soil or dust.

“Today, California is taking the lead on lead,” Davis said. “Lead is a threat to the health of our children, our most vulnerable citizens.”

The bill by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, also gives the California Department of Health Services and local health agencies the authority to gather statewide information about lead poisoning and develop strategies for prevention.

Gov. signs bill helping

doctors against HMOs

SACRAMENTO — A new doctors “bill of rights” signed into law Thursday by Gov. Gray Davis will level the playing field between doctors, medical groups and HMOs in contract negotiations, supporters said.

Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, D-Saratoga, said she brought the bill because “of the imbalance in the relationship between the plans and the providers.”

Because California was the laboratory for managed care, it’s where the laws regulating the relationship between doctors and HMOs need the most fine-tuning, said Steve Thompson, vice president of the California Medical Association, which represents doctors in California.

“No other state has the degree of HMO penetration as exists in California,” he said.

HMOs have ordered doctors to take on additional patients, been lax in payments to physicians and changed contracts without warning, Davis said in a statement.

“Ultimately, none of this improves patient care,” he said. “In order to provide patients with world-class care, we must ensure our doctors have world-class rights.”

Supporters, such as the CMA, said the bill will help stem the tide of physicians leaving the state or retiring early because they’re not happy with the working conditions in California.

Of the 82,000 licensed physicians in California, about 50,000 are practicing, and a “discouraging” number desire early retirement, Thompson said.

The California Association of Health Plans, which represents HMOs, questioned the CMA’s survey, saying it was based on anecdotes. Walter Zelman, the association’s president, said state medical board figures don’t show a decline in the number of people taking California’s licensing exam.

“I continue to be concerned by primarily anecdotal information that physicians put out about HMOs overpowering physicians in the marketplace,” Zelman said. He also cites a study by the Medical Group Management Association, an Englewood, Colo.-based trade organization for medical group administrators, that “shows that for the third year in a row, physician income is going up in California.”

Zelman’s group opposed the original version of Cohn’s bill, but dropped its objections after “onerous and inappropriate” conditions were removed.

Now, doctors will determine how many patients they can handle and won’t be required by an HMO to add new patients, Cohn said. “When they get patients dumped on them, the waiting times for patients get enormous.”

The new law also says that any changes in the contract between an HMO and medical group or doctor must be fully disclosed to the doctor before the changes take effect.

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has rejected a request to put the U.S. Secret Service in charge of security at the upcoming Super Bowl in San Diego, saying it has full confidence in local authorities, city officials said Thursday.

Tom Ridge, the White House homeland security chief, told city officials this week that he was not granting their request to make Super Bowl XXXVII a National Special Security Event — a designation usually reserved for national political conventions and presidential inaugurations.

Last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans as well as the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City were both designated National Special Security Events in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Instead, Ridge decided to put local police in charge of the Jan. 26 NFL championship game at San Diego’s 71,000-seat Qualcomm Stadium and related events throughout the city. The FBI, Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state authorities will provide support.

Under a new rating system created earlier this year, Super Bowl XXXVII will be a Special Event Readiness Level Two, Ridge told Mayor Dick Murphy late Wednesday.

“He thought that Level Two was really appropriate for San Diego because, after having evaluated the situation, he thought the San Diego Police Department was so on top of this it was better to have them in charge,” Murphy said.

Unaware of the brand new rating system, Murphy had requested the Secret Service handle Super Bowl security as a precaution. He said he was not disappointed by the decision.

“We are going to be well prepared,” the mayor said.

San Diego police were in charge of security at two previous Super Bowls at Qualcomm Stadium in 1988 and 1998.

“It tells you the confidence the Department of Homeland Security has in this region and the work we’ve done in the past,” said Assistant Police Chief Bill Mayhew, who has been involved in security preparations for the past six months. “We as a community are very prepared for major events.”

SAN JOSE — High-tech workers who are U.S. citizens are complaining that companies are replacing them with guest foreign workers who are paid less, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

The engineers and programmers say employers are hiring the foreign workers under the H-1B visa program, which was expanded during the height of the tech boom to address a shortfall of domestic programmers and engineers.

“Betrayal is the word that comes to mind,” said Allan Masri, a San Jose engineer who was laid off last year from an engineering job at Netscape.

Masri told the Mercury News he was replaced by a colleague who holds an H-1B visa. Netscape denied the claim.

It’s not clear how many U.S. workers are reporting the problem. Complaints filed with the federal government are not made public until they are resolved.

The Mercury News, however, reported scores of complaints at attorneys’ offices and government agencies ranging from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to the Labor Department.

“One recruiter flatly told me they have 50 H-1Bs willing to work cheap ahead of me in line,” said James Stakelum, a database administrator who lives in Dallas.

While Stakelum has not filed a complaint, others have.

U.S. citizen Jenlih Hsieh claims SwitchOn Networks of Milpitas fired him after six months and replaced him with a foreign worker.

According to his complaint with the EEOC, the H-1B worker earned $30,000 less a year.

An attorney for the company said Hsieh’s dismissal had nothing to do with his citizenship.

H-1B visas are used to bring skilled foreign workers into sectors that have shortages of qualified U.S. workers. They last six years.

The Pleasanton-based grocery store chain said Thursday that net income came to $281.3 million, or 60 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 7, compared with $309.2 million, or 60 cents a share, a year earlier.

During a conference call in June, Safeway Chairman and Chief Executive Steven A. Burd told analysts the company expected third-quarter earnings of 60 cents to 62 cents a share. At that time, analysts had expected earnings of 75 cents a share.

Redback shares tumble

on third-quarter loss

SAN JOSE — Shares of Redback Networks Inc. dropped nearly 43 percent Thursday after the maker of broadband and optical-networking equipment warned its third-quarter loss will be much wider than expected because of weak sales.

Redback said it now expects a third-quarter loss, excluding items, of 23 cents to 25 cents a share on revenue of $15 million to $20 million.

The estimate excludes inventory charges, restructuring expenses and other items considered part of ongoing operations under generally accepted accounting principles.

SAN FRANCISCO — Slumping retailer Gap Inc. is turning to an executive who ran Disneyland to make its turnaround dreams come true.

Paul Pressler, who had been the head of Walt Disney Co.’s theme park and resort business since 1994, took over as Gap’s chief executive officer Thursday in a move that analysts viewed as a coup for the San Francisco-based company.

As he leaves behind the land of Mickey Mouse, Pressler will join a business that has been dominated for the past two decades by another Mickey — the Gap’s renowned CEO Millard “Mickey” Drexler.

Following through on plans that he disclosed in May, Drexler retired Thursday, ending a storied career in which he transformed Gap into one of the world’s best-known retailers.

The last two years of Drexler’s reign were marred by poor fashion decisions that triggered 28 consecutive months of declining sales — something the Gap is counting on Pressler to change.

“We are incredibly pleased with the outcome of our search and are greatly looking forward to having Paul lead the company,” said Gap Chairman Donald Fisher.

WALL, S.D.— For nearly three decades, an 80-foot hole dubbed Delta Nine played a vital role in the nation’s defense.

The underground concrete silo on the edge of Badlands National Park held a Minuteman II missile that could deliver a nuclear weapon to a Soviet target in 30 minutes or less.

After the Soviet Union’s demise and the signing of a 1991 arms reduction treaty with Russia, the missile program was scrapped. Now the silo, never used for war, is being used to educate.

The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site eventually will tell the story of the Cold War and the nuclear weapons that were never used.

“This site will be the first national park in the world whose primary purpose is to commemorate the events of the Cold War,” said Marriane Mills of Badlands National Park, which is handling the project.

At a ceremony Friday, the U.S. Air Force will formally transfer the silo and a nearby launch control facility to the National Park Service.

Park Service officials hope the site will be opened to the public sometime next summer, Mills said. The crew housing facility and underground control center, about 11 miles away, won’t open for two or three years because a visitors’ center and other facilities must be built.

One of the officials expected at Friday’s ceremony will be Craig Manson, the assistant interior secretary. When Manson was in the Air Force in the late 1970s, he was a launch control officer for the missile silo.

“In many respects, the transfer underscores that we accomplished our mission in the Cold War, protecting America from the threat of nuclear war,” Manson said. “This event will mark the transition of the Cold War from an everyday part of our lives to a chapter in our country’s history.”

The 44th Missile Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City stood watch over Delta Nine and 149 missiles in western South Dakota for nearly three decades. The wing was inactivated July 4, 1994, in compliance with a U.S.-Russian treaty.

Minuteman I missiles became active in 1962, about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy told Soviet leader Nikita Kruschchev the Minuteman was his “ace in the hole.”

The original missiles were replaced by Minuteman II models, which flew at 15,000 mph, had a range of 6,300 miles and weighed about 73,000 pounds. The missiles were designed to survive a first attack and then strike back.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Hardy stomached men from around the country will scarf sheep’s entrails for a chance to be named “haggis king.”

The haggis eating contest Friday is part of Bethlehem’s Celtic Classic Festival. The winner will be the first to finish a pound and a half of the Scottish dish, a mix of sheep’s organs, oats and spices.

Tensions are high this year as two former champions prepare to go head to head. Steve Cunningham, of Bethlehem, and Peter Stefchak, of Anchorage, Alaska, have both won twice.

Stefchak said his training regimen includes starving himself for 24 hours before the contest.

Of the haggis, he said, “It sounds awful, but it actually has a light liver taste.”

Cunningham said he is confident. His son will enter with him.

Patrick, 14, finished the haggis first last year. But he didn’t win overall because the rules require children to eat less. Cunningham said he has a special technique for getting it down, but hasn’t told anyone except his son.

“Blood is thicker than haggis,” he said.

Naked gets their attention

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Four years after Mayor Jim Whitaker walked his dog Naked through town to raise money for the city’s Paws-itive Partners animal shelter, the publicity stunt is still reaping rewards.

The North Platte mayor raised a lot of eyebrows and some criticism in 1998 when he pledged to walk Naked if $5,000 was raised for the new animal shelter.

He soon after made it known that Naked was a dog.

Remembering the publicity stunt, a retired Bethlehem, Pa., couple has willed their personal property and any insurance to the animal shelter upon their deaths, which could add up to more than $400,000.

“We hope to still be around awhile, but when we both go they will get everything,” said Marie Spivack.

She and her husband, Marvin, made a donation to the animal shelter and have made several more since. The mayor ended up getting the attention of animal lovers nationwide and raised $9,000.

John Pope, 39, ordered a limousine to pick him up from his hotel in Moline after he robbed a bank Tuesday in the western Illinois community, police said.

Unfortunately for Pope, his driver was a retired police officer.

The driver, Don Madsen, of Moline, tipped off police that he had a suspicious passenger when he picked Pope up from the hotel. Madsen later got a call on his cell phone from one of his old colleagues, who warned that his passenger was suspected in a bank robbery.

Madsen used cryptic language to indicate his location and state troopers found him at a LaSalle truck stop where they arrested Pope.

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco city officials gathered outside City Hall Thursday to unveil a brand new electronic parking meter system that is expected to add millions to city coffers.

The device looks more like an early model video game than the parking meter of the future, but officials say the new meters will more efficiently track time and collect money.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano was joined by Fred Hamdun, director of the city's parking and traffic department, and Paul Carpmael, a project director from Serco Management Services, the company responsible for installing the new system, to witness the unveiling of the new system Thursday. It is expected to increase revenues to the city by an additional $5.9 million.

"Currently an estimated $3 million is lost each year due to theft,'' Ammiano said. "The current system is outdated and unreliable. It wasn't feasible to invest money in old technology.''

According to Hamdun, San Francisco will replace its entire stock of 23,000 meters, many of which have been vandalized. The new machines will take multiple coin denominations and accurately track time using electronic quartz timers.

Under the current system, 1,700 mechanical meters are either broken or missing, frustrating motorists and law enforcement officers alike.

The housing of the new meters is shaped to resist blows from heavy objects and is enclosed by a heavily protected coating.

The city is not only installing a new metering system, Ammiano noted, but rather an entirely new management system. The elements of this system include meter installation, coin counting and collection services, maintenance and an advanced software system that audits itself.

"The City of San Francisco is thrilled, not only because Serco is providing a new and improved system, but also because the company is committed to helping (the department) transition to the new system and will train ... staff on how to properly use equipment,'' Ammiano said.

For the first time in 55 years, meter replacement began in the Tenderloin, Financial District and Excelsior districts in August and is scheduled for completion in March 2003.

Berkeley resident Harrod Blank, 39, was embarrassed to be seen driving a plain white 1965 Volkswagen bug. So he painted a rooster on it. It reminded him of the chickens he grew up with near the Santa Cruz Mountains. But he didn’t stop there.

For 12 years Blank added stuff to his bug. The original white paint is now barely visible under the hood’s beach ball motif and the roof’s television and spinning sunflowers. The bumpers are made of plastic fruit and spoons. In place of a hood ornament sits a miniature Santa Clause with a plastic globe on its head.

Blank described his car as a “mosaic” of what he feels and believes. “The pinnacle of my career is this car,” he said.

Blank’s car he named Oh My God! is one of 80 vehicles participating in the ArtCar Fest this weekend in Berkeley, San Francisco and San Jose. When Blank and fellow artist Philo Northrop dreamed up the festival in 1997, they saw it as an opportunity for local artists to share their ideas and car creations. But now the festival has expanded to include cars from across the country and Canada

Blank’s Volkswagon is familiar to many Berkeley residents. He drives it daily to get coffee. Inside the car, every inch is covered with objects of different colors and textures. On the front dashboard are words spelled out in scrabble letters. The ceiling is a collage of items like church fans, shamrocks and coins.

On his second “artcar,” Blank used only cameras to decorate it. He secured 1,705 cameras to his 1972 Dodge van from fender to hood. Camera Van, which debuted in 1995, also has 10 working cameras that take pictures of people’s reactions. On a trip across the country, he took more than 5,000 pictures.

According to fellow artist Kathleen Pearson, 23, of Bisbee Ariz., artcars are the ultimate way to showcase creativity. “We can take art to the masses,” Pearson said. “Being a painter and sculptor, your art only gets seen in galleries and museums. But cars are free for the public. It reaches people who would not normally walk into an art gallery.”

Her first car, Gradually Love, is filled with childhood memorabilia like Minnie Mouse, Snoopy and Ninja turtles. Pearson hopes the 4,800 objects in the automobile will trigger childhood memories that make people smile.

Pearson’s second car, Hex Mex, blends her Pennsylvania Dutch background with the Mexican influences of her Arizona hometown. Brightly painted with tulips, windmills and flamingos, the car is modestly accented with a pink ice cream cone and psychedelic Amish women on the roof and on the hood, large black and white dice.

While some artists design their cars to express themselves, others used their cars to send a message. Emily Duffy’s car, Vain Van, addresses women’s issues.

The front of Vain Van is covered with hundreds of bras organized in the shape of a giant bra that surrounds the headlights. The mirrors are bordered with gloves. The roof is filled with curlers and the back with fattening foods like donuts and potato chips.

On the sides of the van is where Duffy makes her statement. She has written, “Who profits from your self-loathing?” Drawn beneath the back windows are a measuring tape and scale with the words, “I look fat? By whose measure?”

Artcar designers say their trade takes not only artistic enthusiasm but time and commitment.

“Some people say I have Peter Pan syndrome or I am Tom Hanks in ‘Big,’” said Berkeley’s Blank. “I have fun all the time. I don’t have a real job and I live in a shack in the back of my Dad’s house.”

“It is not real lucrative,” he admits. “I can’t sell it like I would a painting. Cars are like stock. They generate some revenue but they take a lot to maintain.”

The ArtCar Fest begins today with a reception and book signing for Harrod Blank’s new book ‘Art Car,’ an in-depth look at more than 20 artists and their artcars. The Fest will continue in San Jose Thursday and Friday, San Francisco on Saturday and finally conclude in Berkeley all day Sunday.

On the front page of the Daily Planet Sept. 24, I was horrified to find the heading “High School axes African-American Studies Program.” As a 1996 graduate of Berkeley High School, I am increasingly embarrassed and outraged by decisions made by the Berkeley Unified School District.

It is interesting that these sorts of decisions to do away with few working aspects left at Berkeley High; continue to pass without public input, and at the very least communication with the department affected. Here we are in radical Berkeley, where we have more public forums than most city governments throughout the country, but just not on this particular issue. I will not for a moment believe that those involved ever intended on garnering the attention of the target population they are directly affecting. I am however convinced that this type of disregard will no longer be tolerated.

Subsequent to all of this BUSD’s board and staff has no clear direction or plan to solve the high rate of drop out and failure of its students of color. Rebuilding a continuation school and passing it off as an alternative school that simply houses minority students is not the answer to the truancy and high failure rates. For far to long, minority students have been edged out of this so called “unified” district through tracking, and preferences. How long will we continue to be satisfied with extensions for accreditations?

The African American studies department provides an avenue for education specific to African American culture that cannot be achieved anywhere else. It is a benefit to the entire BHS population. Thought its curriculum, and individual attention the department has instilled in these youth a sense of self worth, and pride for cross cultural diversity. Where else are these students going to be presented the works of WEB DuBois, Frederick Douglas, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, Julian Bond, and others?

Are we expected to believe American history will include more than Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue?

They come from Canada, they do fantastic things with trapezes and the human body, they use no animals in their act—and no, they are not Cirque du Soleil. The performance troupe that has descended on Zellerbach Hall is Cirque Eloize, and it is a phenomenon all its own.

Despite similarities to Cirque du Soleil (both are based in Montreal and came out of the athletically-centered cirque nouveau movement), Cirque Eloize is quite distinct from the older and more famous Soleil. In fact, one critic suggested that Eloize is kind of “anti-Cirque du Soleil.” Soleil is known for huge spectacle, pageantry, and tableaux, but Eloize offers a more intimate show, with a dramatic storyline or multiple story lines that often tug at the heart.

Named for the heat lightning flashes seen near the Magdalen Islands off the coast of Quebec, Eloize (pronounced el-was) does have a fiery, creative spirit that comes through in all its performances. An Edinburgh newspaper described it as “circus with atmosphere, poetry, humor and, above all, heart.” Previous shows have included “Cirque Orchestra” a poetic, acrobatic spectacle about a musician who yearns to fly, and “Eccentricus” an exuberant celebration of the performing arts from music to juggling to trapeze artistry.

The troupe’s new show is “Nomade,” a title that seems especially appropriate to an international troupe that spends nearly all of its time on the road. Inspired by Roma music and culture, “Nomade” is loosely constructed around the story of two wandering gypsy troupes that encounter each other on the way to a wedding. From dusk to dawn the two clans play and compete, sometimes erupting in challenges and quarrels, but overall the spirit is of romance and celebration. Lucie Cauchon’s musical score is rich in folkloric tunes, featuring accordion, trombone, drums, and vocals in a make-believe language composed for this dreamy, surreal spectacle.

In keeping with the theme of wandering romance, “Nomade” takes place at night, under the open sky. The rustic set features an enormous full moon, a haunting and romantic backdrop for everything from a sensual tango between two lovers to the acrobatic antics of clowns. There is a chatty narrator on a trapeze and a contortionist who bends her body into extraordinary shapes.

The creators of “Nomade” acknowledge a debt to filmmaker Federico Fellini, well known for his love of the circus. “The scenes emerge like an image from an old postcard… We try to show these links between people, the tragic comedy of life and the spirit of the nomads,” according to artistic director Jeannot Painchaud. While many of the props used by the performers are straight out of centuries-old circus tradition, they are used in new and ingenious ways. A man balances on a large black ball as if floating on a cloud. The Russian bar, traditionally used in balancing acts, doubles as a prop for a children’s street game.

Cirque Eloize’s directors showed pragmatism and humor in adapting the show to their performers, too. While the troupe members are accomplished acrobats, many had little or no musical background. One woman simply could not sing on pitch, although she gamely belted out her lines at the top of her voice. They made her a soloist, and she now is one of the funniest acts in “Nomade.”

Critical buzz has it that this is the best offering yet by the nine-year-old Cirque Eloize. If true, it’s proof that the company has succeeded in staying true to its vision of a good performance with heart. According to Painchaud, technical virtuosity is only one criterion. “What we also look for are the eyes of the artist, to see them deeply inside,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We prefer a very [performer] but with a very big personality and a big interest in being part of a community so that what the public receives is some kind of realistic feelings that these characters on stage, they could be your cousin or grandma or your son.”

From Prop. 215 to Health and Safety Code 11362.5, a review of its history to present day current events.

981-6100

Saturday, Sept. 28

Free Legal Workshop:

“Crossroads: Health and the Law.”

10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

514 58th St. at Telegraph Avenue

Navigate your way through legal issues when living with cancer or any serious illness. Panel presentation on employment, insurance and public benefits and one-on-one sessions with attorneys. Please, pre-register.

601-4040, Ext. 102 for information

or Ext. 103 to register

Free

Garage Sale/ Car Wash

Belize/ Berkeley Scouts

10 to 2 p.m.

Epworth UMC, 1953 Hopkins St.

International exchange fundraising effort for scouts.

525-6058

A Forum on the Arts with the Berkeley Mayoral Candidates

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St.

558-1381

Free

Sunday, Sept. 29

Tibetan Buddhism

“Healing Mind”

6 p.m.

Tibetan Nyingma Institute

1815 Highland Place

Sylvia Gretchen discusses how the teachings cultivate the mind and redefine what healing means.

843-6812

Free

“Iron Chef” Style Cook-Off

3 to 4 p.m.

(followed by reception, 4 to 6 p.m.)

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto

1919 Fourth St.

In this “Crabby Chef” Competition 2002, top East Bay chefs vie for this year’s title by creating the tastiest crab dish. Master of Ceremonies will be KGO-AM’s Gene Burns.

845-7777 or 845-7771

Free

City of Berkeley - 2002 Public Art Competition

1 to 3 p.m.

Berkeley Central Public Library

2090 Kittredge St.

A public art informational workshop will be open to all artists regarding public art site proposals.

981-6100

Free

Thursday, Sept. 26

Kriby Grips, Michael Zapruder, Joe Bernson

9:30 p.m. (21 and over)

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave.

841-1424

$5.

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com

$19.50 in advance. $20.50 at door.

Friday, Sept. 27

The Cracked Normans,

Paradigm & Soul Americana

9:30 p.m. (21 and over)

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave.

841-1424

$5.

Eric Bogle

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 or www.freightandsalvage.com

$16.50 in advance. $17.50 at door.

Fair Weather, Liars

Academy and Open Hand

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5.

Reggae Angels with Earl Zero

and Jah Light Music

9:30 p.m.

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave.

$15 door. 12 and under free.

Saturday, Sept. 28

Barry & Alic Oliver

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$16.50 in advance. $17.50 at door.

From Monument to Masses,

Victory at Sea and Yesterday’s Kids

8 p.m.

924 Gilman St.

525-9926

$5.

Sunday, Sept. 29

Si Kahn

8 p.m.

Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St.

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com

$15.50 in advance. $16.50 at door.

Cellist Gianna Abondolo

4 p.m.

Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St.

Classical favorites and original

compositions for cello.

559-6910

$10 general. 18 and under free.

Weber Iago and Harvey Wainaple

4:30 p.m.

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St.

845-5373

$10-$15.

David Friesen and Uwe Kropinski

8 p.m.

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St.

845-5373

$10-$15.

Blowing Zen: A Performance of Shakuhachi

7:30 p.m.

St. John’s Presbyterian Church

2626 College Ave.

528-2027

$12 at door. Children $5. Seniors $10.

Chamber Music

4 to 5:15 p.m.

Crowden Music Center 1475 Rose St.

Gianna Abondolo & Friends

celebrate the release of their

classical and jazz CD.

559-6910

$10. 18 and under free.

"Balancing Acts"

Through Oct. 10

Gallery 555, 555 12th St.,

Oakland City Center

Oakland's 'Third Thursday' art night features Ann Weber's works made of cardboard.

http://www.oaklandcitycenter.com.

Free.

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”

Through Oct. 30, Mon.-Fri.,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Civic Center Building

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor

Featuring 40 photographs

by Berkeley artist David Bacon.

834-3663, Ext. 338, uchanse@secondharvest.org

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work

Though Oct. 13

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.

A decade of dominance ended Wednesday as the Berkeley High cross country boys defeated Alameda High, the first time the Hornets have failed to win a league meet in more than 10 years.

Junior Alex Enscoe, the reigning ACCAL cross country champion, led the Yellowjackets with a first-place finish of 15:56 on the three-mile course at Point Pinole in Richmond. Enscoe finished 14 seconds ahead of the second-place runner, Yoji Reichert of Alameda.

Berkeley’s Nic Riley, however, was the key to the win, finishing third in 16:32. By beating Alameda’s Marty Skeels (who tied with Pinole Valley’s Nick Falzone for fourth place), Riley virtually assured the Jackets of victory.

“Nic coming in third needed to happen for us to win,” Berkeley head coach Dave Goodrich said. “We actually did more than we needed to to win, but Nic was very important.”

Clinching the race were Berkeley’s next four finishers, who finished 6-9 and keep the Hornets from grabbing any extra points. Bradley Johnson, Jon Finney, Sarmed Anwar and Alex Weisman came across the finish line before another Alameda runner to sew up the win.

Goodrich said he compared his team’s results with Alameda’s at separate invitational meets last weekend and told each runner whom he needed to beat in order for Berkeley to win. The Jackets reached every one of their goals on Wednesday, the first of three ACCAL meets this season.

“We just had a great race,” Goodrich said. “I asked a lot of guys to do certain things, and every one of them did what I asked.”

Enscoe beat Reichert by a wide margin despite staying on his rival’s heels for almost the entire race. The Berkeley runner took off with 800 meters left in the race, using his saved energy to blow by Reichert.

Enscoe and Reichert have run against each other numerous times, but Enscoe said he never knows exactly how things will shake out between the two of them.

“I just went out with Yoji in front of me,” Enscoe said. “I just waited until the end to see how hard he would go. I just had more left at the end.”

Enscoe and his teammates have been building toward beating Alameda for the last two seasons, nearly knocking off the Hornets in the final league meet last season. With Enscoe emerging as the league’s top runner and Riley making a big leap forward over the summer, the Jackets knew they were ready to finally take down the league’s power.

“Last year we came pretty close to beating them,” Enscoe said. “I think we knew this was our best chance, and we went out and did it.”

Berkeley High School’s African-American studies department has been reinstatement, said department Chairman Robert McKnight to wild cheers at a dramatic Board of Education meeting Wednesday night.

An Aug. 20 agreement between the school district and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers called for the high school, in a cost-cutting measure, to fold the 34 year-old program into one or more unspecified departments this fall.

The move would have brought an end to the first and only African-American studies department at a public high school in the nation. Classes would have remained in place, but the department would have lost its chairperson and meeting time for its teachers.

The agreement went largely unnoticed until an article on the deal appeared in the Daily Planet Tuesday. Amid community outrage, McKnight met twice with Superintendent Michele Lawrence Wednesday before the school board meeting.

Lawrence issued a one-paragraph statement announcing the reinstatement of the program Wednesday night. McKnight read the statement aloud at the meeting to the applause of dozens of parents and students.

“I want to thank you, Dr. Lawrence, for your consideration and for this resolution,” said McKnight, after reading the release.

“I do want to extend my apologies for any misunderstanding,” said Lawrence, as a few boos rose from the crowd. “There was no disrespect meant at all.”

Lawrence told the crowd that neither she nor the school board knew about the details of the Aug. 20 agreement, and the consolidation of the department, until a story appeared in the Daily Planet Tuesday. Lower level staff, she said, had crafted the deal.

School board President Shirley Issel said the consolidation of the department was “completely discrepant with the values of the board, with the values of the community.

“I want to apologize on behalf of the board,” she continued, “and assure you that we are pleased with the [reinstatement] agreement you have heard tonight.”

Members of the audience demanded to know why the district had pushed for the consolidation plan in the first place. Issel said she did not entirely know and could only offer a “lame” explanation.

Issel told the audience that district negotiators pushed for the consolidation of African-American studies and several other small departments as part of an effort to close a $3.9 million budget deficit.

“Decisions were made without an awareness of the consequences to the department. This is unimaginable to us that this lack of awareness would happen,” she said. “Once it came to our attention what the consequences were, we were all appalled and we took corrective action.”

A parade of students, in the public comment section that followed, praised the African-American studies department and chastised the board and administration for letting the Aug. 20 agreement happen in the first place.

“The next time you even think about looking at the African-American studies department ... you think about how many people are here today,” said Joseph Abhulimen, a Berkeley High junior, referring to the packed hearing room. “Because next time, there are going to be twice as many people.”

At the start of the public comment period, Issel announced that the board would let students speak first, then parents. But after students spoke for nearly an hour, and a scheduled presentation on after school programs approached, Issel cut off the comment period.

Several parents expressed frustration that adults were not allowed to speak and press the board on the issue.

McKnight, in the end, said he was pleased with the reinstatement of the department.

“I’m just extremely hopeful that they will stand by this decision,” he said.

It was unclear at press time how other departments scheduled for consolidation as a result of the Aug. 20 agreement, including the English Language Learners and visual and performing arts departments, will fare.

The Aug. 20 agreement focused on stipends for department chairs. Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Barry Fike said the union, during negotiations, wanted to keep all the existing departments in place. But, he said, BFT agreed to some consolidations, and the loss of a few department chairs, in exchange for “above average” stipends for the remaining department chairs.

The Cal football team is facing adversity for the first time this season following a 23-21 loss to Air Force last weekend. But the Bears haven’t lost any confidence following their first setback of the season.

“I don’t think we need to panic,” quarterback Kyle Boller said. “We lost one game by two points. It’s not the end of our season.”

“We lost one game by two points. Big deal,” said wide receiver LaShaun Ward.

Cal’s players were quick to point out that Air Force is a unique team, running schemes on both offense and defense that are unlike any other Division I program. The Falcons attempted just eight passes against Cal, sticking with the option for most of the game.

With more conventional Washington State coming to town on Saturday for the Pac-10 opener, the Bears seem confident they can get right back on track.

“I just can’t wait to be a defensive back again,” cornerback James Bethea said. “I felt like a linebacker [against Air Force]. I’m here to cover, so I’m not much on the hitting.”

It helps that the Washington State schemes haven’t changed much during head coach Mike Price’s 14 years in Pullman. With a veteran defense, the Bears are pretty familiar with what they’re going to see from the Cougar offense.

In fact, Cal can take comfort in the fact that they’ll be facing pass-heavy attacks for the rest of the schedule, as the Pac-10 is full aerial specialists.

“Most of the Pac-10 teams are really similar, and we’ve played against Washington State before,” defensive tackle Daniel Nwangwu said. “We can prepare for most of these teams the same way.”

Cal head coach Jeff Tedford said he’s pleased with how his team is responding following its first loss. His philosophy of positive reinforcement and not dwelling on mistakes has been a major factor in the team’s surprising start to the season, and he plans to continue with it even when the results aren’t great.

Several Bears said Tedford was calm and in control after the loss, which in turn helped them to turn around and look toward the next game.

“Monday’s practice was upbeat. The players are definitely disappointed about losing, but it helps them realize what it takes to win,” Tedford said. “I think we’re right where we need to be right now.”

Green Party candidate for governor Peter Miguel Camejo racked up 9 percent of the statewide vote in the latest polls. Despite growing support, though, Gov. Gray Davis is unwilling to recognize his opponent in a formal debate.

Bob Mulholland, campaign manager for the Democratic Party, argued that just like the San Francisco 49ers wouldn’t hand the ball to the opposing team, it doesn’t make sense for the Democratic Party to give space to someone who might take votes from them. Moreover, Camejo’s not qualified, Mulholland said, explaining that the governor has serious work to do, such as appointing judges.

“How absurd that people who can’t get elected to the Berkeley City Council, run for governor,” he said.

Camejo has lost races for a number of public offices. In 1967 the University of California student and anti-war activist ran for mayor of Berkeley. Three years later he made a run for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy. In 1976 he made a bid for president of the United States.

It’s not about winning at this point, said Camejo, jubilant over the latest poll figures. It’s about changing the rules of the game so that minor parties can have a seat at the table. Allowing third-party candidates into statewide debates and having run-off elections would go a long way toward democratizing the electoral system, Camejo said.

At 62, the candidate’s hair is grayer and thinner than during his earlier runs for office. He’s traded his campaign-trail blue jeans for suits. But the man Ronald Reagan once called one of the 10 most dangerous men in California for his anti-war rallies in Berkeley, says that his message aimed at “social and environmental justice” has been consistent over the years.

As a teenager in 1958 he picketed Boston’s segregated lunch counters. He marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, Ala. He organized opposition to the Vietnam war and he supported farm workers’ efforts to unionize.

The Green Party candidate is calling for the following: abolition of the death penalty, an amendment to California’s three strikes law so that it does not apply to nonviolent offenses, legalization of marijuana so it can be regulated and taxed, elimination of no bid contracts and execution of campaign finance reform, including public financing of elections.

Like the Senate Democrats, Camejo would reinstate the highest income bracket to close the state budget gap. He would also eliminate tax breaks for oil companies, eliminate the Proposition 13 mandate that allows corporate-owned property to be taxed at lower rates than homes and reinstate the vehicle license fee.

In the past, Camejo has used a variety of tactics to make his point, including civil disobedience. He has spent time in the Berkeley jail for his political actions and got booted out of UC Berkeley after speaking at an unauthorized rally.

“I believe in the rule of law and in democracy,” Camejo said.

And seizing the opportunity to slide into a critique of President George W. Bush’s intent to go to war with Iraq, Camejo continued: “Bush opposes law. He opposes the world court.” A U.S. war in Iraq would be a violation of international law, he said.

Camejo’s rapid-fire speech then veered quickly back to his run for governor and the governor’s alleged disregard for the law.

He blasted Gov. Gray Davis for his fund-raising tactics, in particular, the May 2001 no-bid Oracle software contract with the state that Camejo called a “$95 million contract the state did not need.” The proof the contract was not needed, Camejo said, is that when the contract became an embarrassment for the governor’s campaign, it was canceled in July and never replaced.

The Davis campaign has consistently argued that the governor is not influenced by campaign contributions.

An unabashed leftist whose runs for president and senate were backed by the Socialist Workers Party, Camejo was born in New York when his Venezuelan mother was visiting her father there. He spent his first seven years in Venezuela, then moved to New York with his parents.

In 1960, Camejo and his father, a wealthy developer, sailed in the Olympics for Venezuela. Currently Camejo is CEO of Progressive Asset Management, Inc., a socially responsible investment firm he founded in 1987 in Oakland. The firm moved to Concord a few years ago.

Camejo freely admits his chances for becoming governor are nil. He says, however, that he has managed, in previous runs for office, to influence the political landscape.

In his 1970 bid for the U.S. Senate seat against Ted Kennedy, Camejo said the pair debated three times. One of the questions posed to Kennedy at a debate at Boston University was about the senator’s position on an initiative on the Massachusetts ballot calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. Kennedy had yet to take a position on it. When Camejo came out strongly in its support, the crowd backed him up with cheers and applause. Camejo said he believes the debate was a critical factor when Kennedy came out a few days later in support of the initiative.

There’s also the question of whether the Camejo bid could tip the balance in favor of Republican challenger Bill Simon. Locally, the Berkeley Democratic Club has not discussed the possible impact of the Camejo race taking votes from Davis. The Cal Berkeley Democrats have a policy of not talking to the media.

Still, there are those who argue that the vote for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in Florida may have pushed Bush into the White House and that Camejo could similarly become a “spoiler.”

That possibility looms even larger with the release Tuesday of the latest polling information from the ABC affiliate News10/Survey USA. When 849 registered voters were asked Sept. 21 and 22 for whom they would vote, results were as follows: Davis, 45 percent; Simon, 35 percent; Camejo, 9 percent; Gary David Copeland (Libertarian who will appear on the ballot, although he after spitting on a radio show host is no longer supported by his party), 4 percent. The margin of error is 3.5 percent.

But Camejo throws the “spoiler” argument back to the Democratic party. The very reason there are run-offs on the local level and in other countries is so that a “spoiler” will not distort the outcome of the elections, Camejo said. In fact, the Democratic Party is the spoiler because it opposes run-offs, he says. He points out that if four candidates run for an office, and there are no run-offs, then someone who got 26 percent could win, even though 74 percent of the voters oppose the candidate.

The Democrats not only oppose run-offs, but they refuse to debate Camejo and the three other minor candidates. But Camejo points to another poll that says the public wants to hear from him.

An ABC/News 10 poll earlier this month showed that among 500 randomly-chosen adults, 69 percent called for Camejo to be included in the Oct. 7 Los Angeles debate sponsored by the L.A. Times; 25 percent opposed his inclusion and 6 percent were not sure.

But, ever flexible in his tactics, Camejo says he’ll be at the debate anyway, picketing on the outside. “The rights of the people are being violated,” the candidate said.

There has been a lot of unfair criticism of the coffee law that will be on the Berkeley ballot in November. One of the often-heard arguments against this law is that it will raise the price of coffee to the point that it will be a luxury for rich people only.

“PC Coffee,” as it is being called in the press, is expensive. It costs around $10 a pound at local stores compared to $2.50 a pound for mass-market coffee, like Maxwell House and Folger's. There is no denying that this is a big price difference, and on the surface, appears to be a powerful argument against this law.

However, people don't drink coffee by the pound, but by the cup, and this law does not apply to coffee you make at home, only to coffee that you buy already brewed.

What does a cup of coffee cost to make?

A pound of coffee beans makes a lot of brewed coffee. The average American gets about 100 cups from a pound of coffee. Starbucks, which makes stronger coffee, gets 60 - 8 ounce cups of brewed coffee from one pound of beans.

Of course, chain coffee shops, like Starbucks and Peet's, don't buy their coffee beans at retail stores. They buy “green coffee” directly from growers and importers. The international average price for “green” (unroasted raw coffee) has been on the decline in recent years. The average was 86 cents a pound in 1999, and currently is down to 76 cents per pound.

That means that the cost of the beans required to make a 12 ounce cup of coffee at Starbucks is around 2 cents. Even if that cost were to double to 4 cents because of this new law, it should have very little, if any, effect on the price of a cup of coffee.

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast — Waving U.S. flags and shouting ’Vive la France!,” American schoolchildren escaped a rebel-held Ivory Coast city under siege Wednesday, as U.S. special forces and French troops moved in to rescue Westerners caught in the West African nation’s bloodiest uprising.

The evacuation came amid concerns that a full-scale battle could envelop Bouake, a central city of half-million residents. “We’re running out of everything,” said one frightened Ivorian woman, reached by telephone. “We are scared.”

U.S. and French troops moved out in force Wednesday to safeguard Westerners caught in a six-day uprising after a failed coup Sept. 19 in which at least 270 people died. With insurgents holed up in two cities, Bouake and the northern city of Korhogo, President Laurent Gbagbo has pledged an all-out battle to root out rebels in what was once West Africa’s most stable and prosperous country.

The 191 Americans evacuated from the school were escorted by the French military to an airfield in Yamoussoukro, where U.S. C-130 airplanes will fly them to Ghana Thursday morning, Pentagon officials said.

The children waved American flags out of car windows as the convoy headed to safety down the region’s main road. “We’re very happy to get off campus,” one girl said as the convoy swept past.

U.S. special forces spilled out of two C-130 cargo planes that touched down in Ivory Coast at midafternoon from a staging point in neighboring Ghana. Plane ramps came down and U.S. forces secured the tarmac of the forest-lined airstrip in Yamoussoukro, clearing the way for Humvees that came rolling out.

American soldiers humping duffel bags and metal boxes rapidly set up a post at the strip, a base for French troops who arrived earlier to move in on behalf of Yamoussoukro’s foreigners. American officials would not say what the soldiers were going to do next.

About 300 Americans live in Bouake, Ivory Coast’s second-largest city, which has been cut off from water, electricity and food since last week’s rebel takeover.

“Our idea is to get as many out as possible,” Richard Buangan, a U.S. diplomat helping to coordinate at the staging area, said of Americans in Bouake after another night of firing outside the International Christian Academy on the city’s outskirts.

About 100 well-armed French troops reached the whitewashed compound of the mission school at midday. “Everyone there is ecstatic,” said Neil Gilliland, speaking by telephone from the affiliated Free Will Baptist Missions in Nashville, Tenn., minutes after the troops’ arrival.

The school houses 200 teachers, and children ages 5 to 18 of missionaries based across Africa.

Firing broke out again on both sides of the mission at daybreak Wednesday, after panic two nights earlier when rebels breached the walls of the campus and fired from its grounds.

“Nobody was firing at them, but there was gunfire all around,” Gilliland said of Monday’s shooting outside the school.

Armed French troops escorted the teachers, staff and children back to Yamoussoukro, where U.S. forces were waiting. Waving U.S. flags and with many wearing U.S. flag T-shirts, the relieved children cheered out the windows at a French convoy headed the other way.

“Vive la France!” — “Long live France!” they hollered.

In Bouake, tense residents reached by telephone Wednesday said rebels still controlled the city and could be seen cruising the streets in commandeered vehicles.

In Korhogo, rebels armed with guns and rocket launchers went house to house, rounding up any paramilitary police and soldiers not yet captured, and confiscating their weapons.

Trapped in their houses, with no sign of a promised government offensive to rout the rebels, residents were becoming increasingly frustrated.

“All my activities are paralyzed. I’m having trouble feeding my family,” said mechanic Souleymane Coulibaly. “If this continues, it is us who will go dislodge the mutineers.”

As foreign troops scrambled to ensure the safety of Westerners, the hundreds of thousands of workers from neighboring Muslim countries were far more vulnerable in the uprising, which has sparked off deadly rivalries between the mainly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.

A core group of 750-800 ex-soldiers — angry at their dismissal from the army for their suspected allegiance to the country’s former junta leader — were believed behind the insurgency. Paramilitary police killed the ex-junta leader, Gen. Robert Guei, in the first days of the coup attempt.

On Wednesday, some 200 protesters threw stones at the French Embassy, demanding it turn over an opposition leader with a northern, Muslim base of support who is being sheltered by the mission.

They then marched on the embassy of predominantly Muslim Burkina Faso, scaling the walls to pull down and tear up the country’s flag.

Paramilitary police over the weekend burned a mostly Muslim shantytown in Abidjan, and Muslim northerners and guest workers reported arrests and beatings.

I have attended most of the meetings about the Eastshore State Park plan and have heard no one speak in favor of the overdevelopment and over-concretization envisioned by the state. Most people enjoy the area, especially the Albany Bulb, as it is, with possible slight improvements such as toilets. Some speakers see the plan as a grab for control, control, control by the state and money, money, money by the concrete contractors. There were lyrical praises for friendly people, happy dogs, birds in the trees and little animals in the grass. Playing fields are needed, but not in waterfront areas. There are safer and more accessible locations.

Save the Seabreeze. Small local enterprises like this are much more appropriate than generic cafes and shops.

Bird breeding areas could be delineated as they are at Pt. Isabel, with slight limitation to, but not elimination of, off-leash dogs.

A dozen protesters picketed outside the Oxford Street Starbucks Wednesday as part of an international campaign urging the chain to buy more “Fair Trade” coffee from farmers.

Under the Fair Trade system, designed to avoid exploitation of farmers, small coffee growers across the globe, organized into collectives, receive a minimum of $1.26 per pound regardless of the international price of coffee, which currently stands at 43 cents per pound.

A Starbucks representative at the protest said the company has made significant progress on the issue, selling bags of Fair Trade coffee to customers since October 2000 and brewing it once a month in stores since May 2002.

“To suggest we’re not doing something is not to acknowledge the facts,” said Gerry Argue, Starbucks’s regional director for the East Bay.

Simon Harris of the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association, a lead organizer of the international campaign, said he was “encouraged” by the move to brew Fair Trade coffee once a month, but said the chain has not fully implemented the policy.

Harris also argued that Starbucks should increase its purchases of Fair Trade coffee and brew it more frequently – once a week.

“Thousands of coffee farmers can’t support their families and companies like Starbucks are making billions of dollars,” he said.

Argue acknowledged that only 1 percent of the coffee purchased by Starbucks is officially certified as Fair Trade, but said Starbuck’s pays an average of $1.20 per pund for its coffee, just below the Fair Trade rate.

The Oxford Street picket, on the west end of the UC Berkeley campus, was one of 300 Starbucks protests planned this week by the Organic Consumers Association and other fair trade activist groups, including the San Francisco-based Global Exchange.

Other protests were scheduled for San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C. and international cities like London, England and Vancouver, Canada.

Activists also called for the removal of bovine growth hormone from Starbucks products Wednesday.

“Better safe than sorry,” said Michael Paurel, a student at Solano Community College in Vallejo, arguing that bovine growth hormone could have unforeseen impacts on consumers.

Starbucks literature notes that the company offers organic and soy milk as an alternative to milk with bovine growth hormone, even though there is low customer demand for the alternatives.

But Harris complained that Starbucks charges up to 40 cents extra for these products, discouraging consumers from choosing them.

Valerie Orth, Fair Trade organizer for Global Exchange, said Berkeley residents can take local action by voting for Measure O in November. The measure would require Berkeley coffee sellers to brew only Fair Trade, organic or shade-grown coffee. The measure does not affect sales of ground coffee or beans.

“It’s the most responsible way to brew coffee because we’re supporting farmers all over,” said Orth. “Berkeley can set the standard.”

But Starbucks’s Argue said the initiative would put small coffee shops out of business by forcing them to pay too much for beans.

“We could comply with the measure, if you got right down to it, but so many operators in Berkeley could not,” he said.

Amy Von Nordheim, a Berkeley resident who picked up literature from the protesters, said she would consider the concerns of small coffee shops in voting on Measure O.

But she said she was happy to be educated about the Fair Trade issues and added that the protesters’ arguments had reinforced her habit of staying away from the sprawling Starbucks chain.

SANTA CRUZ — Upholding its famously liberal leanings, the Santa Cruz City Council has passed a resolution denouncing any pending military strike on Iraq led by U.S. forces.

Tuesday’s 6-0 council vote even outpaced its liberal neighbor, Berkeley. Last year, Berkeley passed a resolution condemning the bombing of Afghanistan, but the city has yet to address the intensifying situation in Iraq.

With passage of the resolution, the City Council authorized Mayor Christopher Krohn to send letters to President Bush and other national leaders relaying the council’s sentiments.

Though local supporters presented a petition with hundreds of signatures backing the resolution, there was some dissent. One resident, Bill Codiga, said the resolution was inappropriate and a waste of city time and money. His comments drew hisses from the crowd.

Mayor Krohn and the City Council have made other headlines as of late, most recently for attending a marijuana giveaway in the courtyard of city hall in response to a federal agency raid on local medical marijuana farmers.

MORGAN HILL — Flames burned toward dozens of homes nestled in remote neighborhoods of the lushly forested Santa Cruz Mountains on Wednesday, with firefighters struggling in 90-degree heat to control one of the area’s largest wildfires in decades.

The 2,529-acre blaze sent towering walls of flame through tinder-dry brush and trees. At least 11 homes were confirmed destroyed and four were damaged according to Steve Gasaway, a California Department of Forestry spokesman.

CDF surveyed 30 percent of the area damaged by the 3-day-old fire. About 35 homes were checked by Wednesday evening, he said. There was no estimate on how many outbuildings had been affected. Six minor injuries were reported.

Dozens of firefighters and helicopters worked to halt the advance of flames late Wednesday afternoon along the Santa Clara-Santa Cruz County line, midway between Corralitos and Morgan Hill. The intense flames shot 30 feet into the air and ashes snowed down on Summit Road, along the county border.

Crews worked to build a fire line to keep the flames from jumping to the Santa Cruz County side of the road.

Santa Clara County officials on Wednesday declared a state of emergency, which allowed them to bring in additional resources from outside and get disaster relief for residents, according to Pete Kutras, assistant county executive.

“We know some homes have been lost and as the fire is moving, a great number of additional homes are being threatened,” Kutras said.

The fire line was within a half mile of Kim Son Meditation Center, a Buddhist temple on Mt. Madonna, close to Loma Prieta peak.

On Monday, more than 150 people were at the center for a retreat, but by Wednesday, just a handful remained. They hoped to stay, but were staying in touch with authorities.

“If it becomes dangerous, then we’ll have to leave,” a nervous Thich Quang Chieu said.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials believe the fire was sparked Monday by a fire within a mobile home along the eastern side of the mountains.

House bill 1953 expands the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to include Rancho Corral de Tierra, Devil's Slide and Martini Creek.

"The new additions to the GGNRA covered by my legislation will be accessible to more than 6 million people who live within a one hour's drive of the park and will provide national park programs and experiences to millions of national and international visitors,'' said Lantos.

Congress also approved a proposal to add another 10 years to the life of the Point Reyes National Seashore Citizens Seashore Advisory Commission.

A Senate version of the bill passed earlier this year. Both pieces of legislation must by reconciled before a final vote, which is expected soon.

Deadline passes for

tree squatters to leave

BRISBANE — The 30-day deadline for Besh Serdahely and Thelma Caballero to move out of their oak tree home of 12 years expired Wednesday, but the squatters say they’re not leaving without a fight.

“She’s going to be hauled out in handcuffs. It’s going to take a big ol’ sheriff,” Serdahely said. “Nobody will convict her, it’s real. She really needs that place.”

San Mateo County officials stapled a notice to the tree in a county park telling the couple that if they remained beyond the deadline, they could be cited for trespassing.

Deputy County Manager Mary McMillan says she doesn’t want it to come to that, which is why county officials, mental health workers and housing coordinators will continue visiting the couple in hopes of persuading them to come down from San Bruno mountain.

“We’re going to keep going up there with housing options and potentials for them should they find them appropriate,” she said. “It’s too bad, frankly. But what’s most important is doing what’s best for them. First and foremost, that’s what everyone is concerned with.”

McMillan said the couple will not be evicted from the tree, but they also will not be permitted to stay. She said there’s no clean drinking water, human waste is being handled improperly and the environment is unsafe.

“There was a 14-acre fire near there just last week,” she said. “The county is concerned for their health and safety and is not going to let them continue to inhabit the park.”

Authorities moved to evict the couple after a recent review of property lines revealed that the hideaway is on land owned by the county rather than the state.

SACRAMENTO — California has enacted first-in-the-nation laws this year on family leave, auto emissions and stem-cell research, lending credence to the saying that wherever America is going, California will get there first.

California rivals Washington, D.C., as an epicenter of change because of its size (34.5 million people, more than any other state) and economic clout (sixth-largest economy in the world, with a gross state product of $1.3 trillion).

Lawmakers elsewhere look at California laws for direction.

“If it works in California, it is likely to work in states throughout the country,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics in Charlottesville, Va. “The states are the laboratories for democracy, and California is the chief laboratory.”

When the state passed the nation’s first “lemon law” in 1982 to protect consumers who buy cars with serious defects, the measure became the model for similar laws in all 50 states. California enacted the nation’s first ban on assault weapons in 1989; it was quickly adopted in six other states and led to a federal ban in 1994. California’s 1970 Clean Air Act is still the toughest in the nation.

National firsts in California this year include a law explicitly allowing embryonic stem cell research, the country’s toughest auto emissions laws and a requirement that 20 percent of the state’s power come from renewable energy sources by 2017.

Earlier this week, Gov. Gray Davis signed the nation’s first comprehensive paid family leave law, which allows workers to leave their job for up to six weeks at 55 percent pay to care for a newborn, newly adopted child or sick family member.

Also, the gun control movement successfully pushed a measure this year making California the first state to repeal gun manufacturers’ special immunity against lawsuits. Davis is expected to sign the bill this week.

“What we do here has tremendous impacts both in the message we send and its immediate impact on the health and safety of a large group of Americans,” said Luis Tolley of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Because of California’s reputation as a liberal state, it often attracts interest groups that can’t get what they want from Congress.

BERKELEY — University of California, Berkeley, was awarded a $2.1 million federal grant Wednesday to study the economic impact of smoking prevention efforts in China, the largest consumer of tobacco products in the world.

The five-year grant was presented by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health.

Cigarette production in China has nearly doubled since 1982. The country now includes more than 320 million smokers, which represents one quarter of the world’s smokers.

The study will compare disease rates among nonsmokers who live with a smoker compared to those who do not. In the vast majority of cases, the nonsmoker is a woman or child. Only 4 percent of women over 15 smoke in China, compared to 63 percent of men over 15.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gray Davis cleared the way Wednesday for Californians to sue gun manufacturers if they believe the companies have been negligent in the advertising or production of firearms.

The package of bills Davis signed removes a shield granted to gun makers regarding negligence lawsuits. Previously, gun manufacturers could not be sued if their products were used in the commission of a crime.

A number of states have similar legal shields for gun makers. California is the first state to repeal such an immunity.

“No industry should be allowed to hide from its own harmful conduct,” Davis said in a telephone press conference. “And except for gun manufacturers, no industry is. Current laws shield a gun manufacturer from its own negligence. These new laws strip away that shield.”

California’s new laws have already gained the praise of gun control advocates.

“These bills were our top priority this year, we’re thrilled that the governor has stuck by his position on this,” said Eric Gorovitz, Western policy director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a national grassroots organization.

Gorovitz said he hopes the measure will make the gun industry more responsible because of the threat of lawsuits.

Critics of the bills, however, argue that they could open the door to frivolous lawsuits. And, Chuck Michel, a spokesman for the California Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc., says the legislation is an attempt by gun-ban advocates to swamp gun manufacturers with lawsuits to bankrupt them.

“They will use this to file multiple lawsuits based on their mistaken belief that firearms have no social utility,” Michel said. “They want a legitimate industry to pay for the inability of law enforcement and local authorities to control violent crimes.”

The new law removes a lawsuit shield enacted in 1983 to protect manufacturers of cheaply made handguns known as Saturday Night Specials.

The shield was cited by the state Supreme Court last year when it ruled that a gun company couldn’t be sued by survivors of a 1993 rampage for damages done when criminals use their products illegally.

Also Wednesday, Davis signed 14 identity theft bills, including one that keeps mother’s maiden names and Social Security numbers out of public birth and death indexes.

Supporters said the laws are needed to keep sensitive information out of criminals’ hands, but others said the restrictions will needlessly hurt law-abiding people, including genealogists and adoptees seeking birth records.

“It is a terrible precedent,” said Terry Francke, general counsel for the California First Amendment Coalition. “There was no demonstrated harm. And I mean none.”

SACRAMENTO — A California board has stripped accounting giant Arthur Andersen of its license to operate in the state, officials said Wednesday.

The state Board of Accountancy took the action after Andersen waived its right to a hearing before an administrative law judge.

A federal court jury in Texas found the company guilty of obstruction of justice in June for its role in the Enron scandal. Government attorneys contended Andersen shredded documents relating to Enron Corp. to hide financial irregularities by the now-bankrupt energy trader.

The action by the California board follows a decision by officials in Texas to pull Andersen’s license there.

Silicon Valley HMO closing

SAN JOSE — Health care may be on the shopping lists of thousands of Silicon Valley employees during this year’s holiday season.

The California Department of Managed Health Care seized the company Sept. 13 and has since said it would become the fourth HMO state officials have closed since the department was established in 2000.

For nearly 25 years, Lifeguard has covered employees both public and private — from the City of San Jose and the Livermore School District to high tech giant Hewlett-Packard and defense contractor General Dynamics.

HP to cut 1,800 more jobs

SAN JOSE — Citing continued weak demand, Hewlett-Packard Co. said Wednesday it will cut 1,800 jobs beyond the 15,000 reductions planned as part of its Compaq Computer Corp. acquisition.

The cuts are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2003. As of the third quarter, which ended July 31, the company had reduced its net headcount by 4,740.

In a note sent to employees Tuesday, the company blamed the latest reductions on a “continued market slowdown and HP’s clear intent to have a competitive, world-class cost structure.”

HP expects to have reduced its work force by 10,000 by Oct. 31, the end of its current fiscal year.

The bill by Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena, directs the Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency to set up the office in the Republic of Armenia if it can raise money from an outside source to cover the cost.

The head of the agency, Lon Hatamiya, and Scott said state officials hope to raise the money with help from California’s Armenian community.

SAN FRANCISCO — Businesses and institutions who bypassed their local utilities to buy cheaper electricity from power sellers would have to pay a surcharge to help the state repay its energy debts, under a plan put forward by the state’s energy regulators Wednesday.

The Public Utilities Commission released several draft proposals Wednesday that detail how consumers’ electric rates will pay for the state’s energy debts.

The commission will vote on the plans at their Oct. 24 meeting. The proposals are necessary to get the state’s three investor-owned utilities back into the power-buying business, said PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper.

One of the proposals would charge direct access customers an additional 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour so they pay a share of the state’s power debts. Consumer groups said that surcharge is too low.

Utility customers pay about 14 cents per kilowatt hour, but the rates vary by utility, customer class and the amount of energy used.

Direct access, one of the cornerstones of the state’s failed deregulation plan, allowed customers to buy electricity from sources other than their utilities. During the energy crisis of 2001, wholesale rates soared above the capped retail rates, causing the utilities to amass billions of dollars in debts and forcing the state to step in to buy energy for utility customers.

NEW YORK — Sales for Sept. 11 books have dropped substantially since the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, although a handful of titles remain best sellers.

According to Neilsen BookScan, which tracks about two-thirds of retail sales, Lisa Beamer’s “Let’s Roll” was the most popular nonfiction hardcover book for the week ending Sept. 22. Beamer’s husband, Todd, is credited with helping lead the charge against the terrorists on United Flight 93.

The third best-selling book was “Longitudes and “Attitudes,” essays and journals about Sept. 11 by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. “What We Saw,” a retrospective with an introduction by CBS Anchor Dan Rather, ranked No. 12.

Seven Sept. 11 books appeared in the top 15 on the BookScan list for the week ending Sept. 15, when the actual anniversary took place. Sales for all have since dropped, some by more than half. “What We Saw,” for example, sold 7,000 copies last week, compared to 15,000 the week before.

“Interest has fallen off,” said Barbara Meade, co-owner of Politics & Prose, a Washington, D.C.-based store located about 10 miles from the Pentagon.

“The Thomas Friedman book is selling better than anything we’ve had this year. But we have a table of Sept. 11 books that are not getting the sales they did before,” Meade said Wednesday.

More than 100 books related to the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon came out this fall, covering everything from religion to intelligence gathering. Publishers and booksellers have questioned how many would catch on with readers.

“We don’t need every publishing company doing 10 or 12 books every Sept. 11,” said Mary Gay Shipley, owner of That Bookstore in Blytheville, Ark. “I don’t think we should ever forget, but I do get the feeling we’re moving on.”

OAKLAND — A couple accused of abducting, raping and murdering a 22-year-old Pleasanton woman in a minivan rigged for torture was sentenced to death Wednesday.

James Daveggio, 41, and his then-girlfriend Michelle Michaud, 43, kidnapped Vanessa Lei Samson in December 1997. The Sacramento couple kept Samson inside their minivan, rigged with hooks and ropes, where they repeatedly tortured her with curling irons while driving east toward the Sierra Nevada.

A motorist found Samson's body two days later, face down in the snow, about 30 feet down a embankment alongside a road in Alpine County. She had been strangled.

Judge Larry Goodman ordered Wednesday morning that Daveggio be delivered to San Quentin State Prison within 10 days.

Michaud was sentenced to death Wednesday afternoon.

Daveggio, a bearded, burly man with numerous tattoos inked on his arms, showed no reaction to the sentence.

Earlier in the morning, citing "overwhelming and undisputed'' evidence of Daveggio's guilt, Goodman denied an automatic motion to have the death sentence reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a monotone voice, Goodman said the court's independent review of the evidence found Samson's murder to be “vile, cruel, senseless, depraved, brutal, evil and vicious.”

Deputy District Attorney Angela Backers said that never in the history of Alameda County has the criminal justice system seen such a case of “pure evil and utter depravity.”

“These two defendants are simply the worst of the worst,'' Backers said. She called it “a good day for justice.''

Before killing Samson, Daveggio and Michaud raped six young girls and women, Backers said. The two called these attacks “huntings.”

Prior to sentencing, several members of Samson's family, including her brother and mother, addressed Daveggio in court.

Vincent Samson, the victim's older brother, placed a framed picture of his sister on the defense table in front of Daveggio before addressing him.

“What do you say to someone who raped, molested and killed my sister?” Vincent Samson said. “What do you say to a demon that committed vile, inhuman acts on innocent children?”

He remembered the “kid sister'' he used to pay to wrap his Christmas presents and the caring, giving and responsible young woman who was robbed of her future.

Vincent Samson also asked Daveggio whether he had in fact killed Vanessa Lei Samson and whether he was sorry for the crimes he had committed.

Just prior to his sentencing, Daveggio was allowed to respond to Vincent Samson's questions. Daveggio, dressed in bright red jail garb, turned around and looked directly at the Samson family.

“I, in fact, did not kill Ms. Samson. By law I am as guilty of her death as Michelle is,” Daveggio said.

“Do I care or feel for Ms. Samson? Yes, watching your family, unfortunately I have never seen love as you all have for her. Yes, I think about it every day.”

Christina Samson said she is still haunted by the brutal slaying of her daughter.

“She was in terror. Frightened beyond words,'' Christina Samson said, referring to her daughter's final moments. “She was brutally tortured and she was defenseless and alone.”

The mother said that she still cries over the loss of her daughter, most often in the early morning hours so that her family members cannot hear her.

SAN FRANCISCO — A television news report that a major component of the city’s emergency water system had been neglected for more than a decade is prompting changes and a fire department investigation into how the system came to be neglected.

A report by KGO TV on Tuesday found that several engines that drive pumps at San Francisco’s Pumping Station Number Two are could fail in a major disaster. Such engines are used to keep water flowing from San Francisco Bay to fire hydrants if the main system shuts down or leaks, as it did following the Loma Prieta earthquake.

But an official department report shows the engines are in critical condition. The engines’ manufacturer recommends the oil be changed every 150 hours, or once a year. But the chief engineer charged with maintaining the station, Seung Hong, told the television station he hasn’t changed the oil in more than 10 years because the pumps only run four hours a month.

The television station found Hong had been playing golf and working on his car inside the station, as well as lifting weights and tending to lettuce, tomatoes and spices in a contraband garden.

San Francisco Fire Chief Mario Trevino said the city has two fire boats to use in an emergency, but has instituted a new maintenance program to ensure the emergency water supply will be reliable. He also is launching an internal review and has asked police for a criminal investigation.

Young people are more conservative than their parents on school prayer, abortion and federal aid to faith-based charities, according to a new nationwide poll by UC Berkeley researchers.

The survey found that 69 percent of teenagers support school prayer, compared to 59 percent of adults ages 27 to 59. Likewise, 67 percent of high school-age teens favor federal aid for faith-based charities, versus 40 percent of adults 27 to 59.

An informal street poll of Berkeley residents found little support among young people for conservative religious issues like school prayer. But there was a broad consensus that even in Berkeley, renowned for its liberalism, a growing conservatism among young people exists.

“Berkeley is so liberal,” said Josh Grassel, a Berkeley High School senior. “One way kids are rebelling from their parents is to be more conservative.”

Grassel was quick to note that “conservative” in Berkeley would likely be considered liberal elsewhere.

Phoebe Calef, a BHS junior, said her mother is more liberal than she is because she grew up during the protest era of the 1960s.

“My mom was born and raised in Berkeley and graduated from Berkeley High in 1969,” Calef explained.

Berkeley resident Toby St. John, 49, said her 16-and 19-year-old daughters are just as liberal as she is. But St. John agreed that young people are on the whole more conservative.

“I think it’s a sad thing,” she said. “I think the values of this country and the values of youth are, ‘I’m here to get as much as I can.’ ”

UC Berkeley Annie Bowman, a member of Berkeley Students for Life, took a more positive view of the survey results. But, as a student at UC Berkeley, she said there is little evidence of a growing conservatism.

“It’s surprising,” she said, of the poll results. “My classmates, my friends here, try to make a point of showing their individualism. They try to fit in with radical views.”

Bowman’s sister Molly, a junior at UC Berkeley, said her generation’s conservatism may be a response to the breakdown of the family, which she linked to “radical feminism” and other movements of the 1960s.

But Chris Cantor, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, disputed the notion that his generation is more conservative than the Baby Boomers.

Cantor argued that a record period of prosperity left his generation unconcerned with politics. Now that the economy is in decline he predicts things will change.

“I’d expect that the younger generation is going to become more radical as the economic conditions become less accommodating,” he said.

The UC poll found that while young people are more conservative about religious issues, they are more liberal than their parents on assistance for the poor and protection of the environment.

The study found few generational differences on other issues like military defense, gun control, tax policy and criminal punishment.

Researchers did not come to any conclusions about why there is a split on religious matters, but parity on other traditionally conservative issues.

“We need to explore why youths seem to be more conservative than their elders when it comes to religious politics and abortion politics, but not other issues,” said Douglas Strand, project director at the university’s Survey Research Center.

Strand speculated that the mobilization of religious conservatives in the late 1970s and an increase in pro-school prayer, anti-abortion messages may have affected young people’s political views. Baby Boomers, he noted, were not exposed to as many of these messages in their formative years.

The UC poll, in addition to locating a “generation gap” on religious issues, found that individuals who do not participate heavily in politics are more conservative on “family values” issues, and are more liberal on racial issues, federal domestic spending and campaign finance reform.

Mobilizing these people, the study suggests, could push the political debate over campaign finance reform or domestic spending to the left and pull the discussion on “family values” issues like homosexuality and abortion to the right.

Democracy in Berkeley is to be much applauded. This week’s Parks and Recreation Committee patiently listened for two hours as 38 members of the community were each given the opportunity to speak. One speaker said that democracy in Berkeley is slow and challenging, but in the end, we in Berkeley end up with fabulous and unique accomplishments, like Dreamland for Kids, like the Harrison Street Skatepark, like the Pedestrian Overpass.

It is precisely this engaged citizenry, this active creative and vital community which makes Berkeley a wonderful place.

I can only hope that the school board will take its head out of the shell and start promoting democracy. Listen to citizen and community concerns, enter into dialog with us, involve us in problem solving.

Don't keep emphasizing the “unified” in an attempt to homogenize and Mcdonaldize our community. Before you make any further cuts in the budget, or any additional changes to basic curriculum and schedules, hold democratic, public meetings, listen to your advisory committees and utilize what is rich and right with Berkeley.

Although the Berkeley High girls volleyball team had a rough preseason, there’s one thing the Yellowjackets know they can count on: dominating the Alameda Contra-Costa Athletic League.

Berkeley, just 1-4 before Tuesday’s league opener, needed just 30 minutes to overwhelm the Richmond Oilers, 15-1, 15-1, 15-5. The Oilers had just one kill in the match and didn’t score a point from play until halfway through the second game.

Senior Amalia Jarvis led the Berkeley attack with seven kills and no hitting errors, while senior Rachel Phillips served her way to six aces. Junior Nadia Qabazard pitched in with five aces and five digs, and junior Chelsea Bowden had 10 assists.

The Jackets towered over the Richmond (0-1 ACCAL) players, and it was quickly apparent that Berkeley is still the best team in the ACCAL. The Jackets haven’t lost a match in the two years of the league’s current configuration and don’t figure to break the streak this season. The Oilers struggled just to get Berkeley’s serves back over the net, with no player capable of hitting a spike with any authority.

“There are a few teams in the league who at least have a player who can hit,” Berkeley head coach Justin Caraway said. “Our defense just doesn’t get a lot of work in these games.”

Berkeley’s offense worked smoothly on Tuesday with just four hitting errors in the match. The Oilers didn’t exactly make it tough on the Jackets, dinking easy free balls over the net for easy passes and sets by Berkeley. Richmond’s only point of the first game came on a rotation penalty on the Jackets. Caraway doesn’t expect much better competition from the other teams in the league and said he will use ACCAL games to work on things like jump serving and offensive experimentation.

But after winning the North Coast Section title last season, Caraway isn’t too happy with his team’s performance so far this year. Not-even-close losses to Bishop O’Dowd and Castro Valley, two of the teams Berkeley went through for the NCS title last season, have revealed a Berkeley team that is still reeling from the loss of 6-foot-5 middle blocker Desiree Guilliard-Young. Guilliard-Young left the Berkeley as the school’s all-time leader in kills and blocks.

With senior Vanessa Williams moving to the middle and six-footers Claire Vacarro and Brittany Mabry providing quality depth, the Jackets will still have little trouble with the height-challenged teams of the ACCAL. But with Mabry ineligible at the moment and no Guillard-Young to scare the opposition, they will have to spread the offense around to be effective against top-level teams.

“Once we get Brittany back, we’ll be in good shape,” Caraway said. “I’d like to see more motion in our offense, so we can mix up where we’re hitting the ball.”

The Jackets will get another test when they play in the Top of the Bay Tournament this weekend in Santa Rosa. Most of Northern California’s best teams will take part in the tournament.

A proposal by Mayor Shirley Dean to consider moving the UC Berkeley football stadium from under an earthquake fault on the eastern side of campus has caused some pre-election rumblings.

“It’s a preposterous plan,” said Tom Bates, her chief opponent in the November Election. “Where else in Berkeley can they build another football stadium,” he asked.

Dean disagreed.

“If there was an earthquake or a wildfire during a football game it would be very difficult to evacuate the area,” Dean said.

In addition to safety concerns she cited traffic and distance from public transportation as reasons to consider a new stadium.

The university is looking into a costly retrofit project for its 80,000-seat Memorial Stadium.

Dean first floated the stadium move Sunday at a candidate forum held by neighborhood groups southeast of the campus, where neighbors have long complained about football game traffic.

She called for the city and the university to study a plan to build a new stadium on the western edge of campus, near the intersection of Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue and near BART.

Dean also mentioned the possibility of unearthing a waterfall and creek she said are buried under Memorial Stadium.

Bates, however, called Dean’s proposal an outright attempt to pander to stadium neighbors. But Dean said the timing was right to consider a new football field because of the current retrofitting needs.

Built directly above the Hayward fault in 1928, Memorial Stadium is in need of a seismic retrofit, said Bob Rose of the university’s athletic office. Rose said the university is studying different proposals, but he would not discuss the final price for stadium upgrades.

UC Berkeley, not the city, has final say over the location of its football stadium.

Neighbors of the stadium say that traffic and parking are so bad on the seven home game days that they feel trapped in their homes.

“You couldn’t believe how bad [traffic] is,” said Martha Jones, who lives on Derby Street. “If you have any errands to do you have to wait until after the football game begins and get back before the game is over.”

Dean wants the city and the university to discuss a plan submitted last year by resident Rex Dietderich to build a new 50,000-seat stadium.

Dietderich, a former Berkeley fire captain and financial supporter of UC Berkeley athletics, said that a retrofit would cost $100 million and would not fix all of the stadium’s structural problems.

He suggested building a metal stadium at the grass field just south of Oxford and Center streets, with a five-level parking garage under it. This would cost $150 million, he said.

“The university could have a top-notch stadium and solve its parking problems forever,” said Dietderich.

University officials, though, said the plan is not feasible.

“There isn’t enough land there,” said Jackie Bernier, principal planner for the university. The water level below the site is too high to accommodate underground parking, Bernier said.

“If you built a stadium there you would have to build a huge structure because you couldn’t dig into the ground,” said Bernier.

Dean said the plan might not be viable, but that the city and the university owe it to stadium neighbors to consider the plan.

Bates said he supported retrofitting the current stadium and that the city and university should offer more public transportation to the stadium on game days.

As long as the Sierra Club and the Greens run from dealing with the underlying cause of sprawl – immigration-induced population growth – they will have to suffer the Hobbesian choice posed by Measure P.

If that fence post is sharp they deserve the discomfort. Ignorance shouldn't be blissful.

Teachers and activists expressed concern Tuesday about cost-cutting moves that combine Berkeley High School’s visual and performing arts departments and fold the English Language Learners department into other, undetermined programs.

The comments came one day after African-American studies advocates said they were outraged over a plan to fold the 34-year-old African-American studies department, the only one of its kind in the nation, into one or several other high school programs.

The consolidations, which will go into effect in a matter of weeks, are the result of an agreement signed by the school district and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers Aug. 20.

The district, in negotiations, pushed for consolidation of any department that offers fewer than 15 classes a year. The move eliminated the need for several department heads and saved several thousand dollars, helping close the district’s $3.9 million budget deficit.

The union agreed to the consolidation, said BFT President Barry Fike, in part to win “above average” pay for the remaining department heads.

Department chairs, under the agreement, will receive stipends of $5,000, $3,750 or $2,250 depending on the size of their programs.

Teachers received copies of the agreement at the beginning of the school year, but the story did not receive broader public attention until Monday, with an article in the Daily Planet.

The changes will not lead to a reduction or change in classes, but will eliminate department heads for the effected programs and, in some cases, prevent teachers from meeting on their own for planning purposes.

Instead, teachers will have to report to staff meetings in their new, larger departments. Critics say instructors, as a result, will not have time to discuss issues relevant only to visual arts or English language learners.

“There have been a lot of changes at the state level,” said Mike Walbridge, former chair of the ELL department, referring to new state standards and new state test. “We’re concerned we need to be spending time as a department on these new standards.”

Walbridge gave the district credit for providing his department with a temporary reprieve – allocating funding from a federal Title VII grant to ELL teachers so they can continue to meet this year.

“My biggest concern is when that grant runs out,” he said.

A lack of meeting time, Walbridge said, could lead to “haphazard” planning, which would eventually effect students.

“The concern, obviously, is that it’s a very special group of students,” said Father George Crespin of St. Joseph the Worker Church, which serves a large Latino population. “I understand the financial problems, but I would hope that the quality of the attention the students get would not be lessened.”

About 300 students at Berkeley High, more than 10 percent of the total, are ELL students, according to Walbridge. Half of the students take ELL courses and the rest have moved into mainstream classes.

Miriam Stahl, a visual arts teacher, said instructors want to keep the visual and performing arts departments separate so they can have separate meeting time.

“It’s not productive to meet together all the time when our curriculums are so different,” she said.

Stahl added that the visual and performing arts programs would like to have separate department heads who could discuss their own, unique interests in discussions with school administrators.

Performing arts teachers, for instance, have a particular concern with the management of performance space at Berkeley High, while the issue is less important for visual arts instructors, Stahl said.

BFT President Barry Fike said Tuesday that he would be happy to take the issue of department consolidation back to the bargaining table, but that district officials seem unwilling to work out a new deal.

District officials in the central office and at Berkeley High did not return calls for comment Tuesday, but Associate Superintendent for Educational Services Christine Lim told the Daily Planet Monday that the district was unlikely to renegotiate the consolidations.

David Scharfenberg's story “Students Push Israeli Divestment” (Daily Planet, Sept. 19) was a good, balanced one. We of Students for Justice in Palestine, Berkeley hope that the regents read it. In particular, Regent David Lee should read the story. As a student of UC Berkeley, I was surprised to hear such an ignorant statements as Regent Lee made regarding the history of the conflict. His suggestion that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians goes back over 1,000 years (almost 2,000, according to him) reveals his ignorance of the fact that the state of Israel was created in 1948. This is little over 50 years ago. Even right-wing Zionists will admit this historical fact. How do our Regents become administrators of the UC? As students and educators at this top institution, we would expect our regents to be more informed about the basics of history. Or at least wise enough not to speak on issues of which they are so little informed. To learn more, Regent Lee should also read SJP's divestment information (www.ucdivest.org), which we gave to the regents, the statements from dozens of faculty members we gave the Regents, or at the very least, read something on the history of the conflict. It is because so many are ignorant of even the basic history of the conflict that SJP focuses so much of our organizing energies on education. We therefore invite Regent Lee, and all other regents, to our upcoming teach-ins.

Processed foods are becoming less appealing to American eaters, say journalists debating the social and environmental impacts of factory foods at a UC Berkeley conference this week.

On one side, food industry giants like McDonalds, Monsanto, Conagra are pushing for technological advances such as genetically modified crops and irradiated beef. They say the changes will lead to greater consumers convenience and productivity.

On the other hand, critics fear that industry advances will hurt the environment, public health and American culture.

Eric Schlosser, author of the New York Times bestseller “Fast Food Nation,” addressed a packed audience at Wheeler Hall Monday night, pushing to lessen the industrialization of food.

Schlosser noted that 10 agribusinesses control 90 percent of the global food market.

“There is a lot of talk about the current system being inevitable,” Schlosser said. “There is nothing inevitable about it at all.”

In a conference titled “Food and the Environment: The Costs, Benefits and Consequences of Modern Food Production,” sponsored by the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and hosted by UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Schlosser and a panel of authors kicked off the week-long gathering with some of the country’s most prominent food, science and agriculture journalists. The conference will also feature representatives from the food industry, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, nutritionists and other organizations.

Panelist Michael Pollan, contributing writer for “The New York Times Magazine” and author of “The Botany of Desire” said that the food industry treats agriculture like a factory rather than as part of a larger and fragile ecological system.

American agriculture’s centralized structure and vast acres of undiversified crops leave it vulnerable not only to environmental threats like pests and drought, but also to terrorism, Pollan said. “The system is very precarious.”

There are, however, promising alternatives to factory foods. While food consumption is growing annually at a rate of 3 percent, the organic food sector is growing at a rate of 20 percent, Pollan said.

Panelist Corby Kummer, senior editor of “The Atlantic Monthly,” talked about combining personal pleasure and the love of food with environmental responsibility. The argument is that when people build relationships with local food growers, they start seeing themselves as active participants in a dynamic environment rather than passive consumers.

“You are the converted,” Kummer said. “Make relationships with that sassy person behind the counter at the Cheeseboard.”

Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters, who catered dinner for conference participants Monday night, has long been an advocate of “slow food,” a protest to fast food.

At her world-renowned restaurant, Waters focuses on using local, seasonal foods on her menus. “This is a delicious revolution,” she said.

Mark Hertsgaard, a panelist who researched his book “Earth Odyssey” overseas pointed out that concerns such as obesity, organic farming and genetically modified foods are luxuries that most of the world cannot afford.

“Worldwide, one in three people goes to bed hungry several times a week, and one in six is chronically hungry,” said Hertsgaard, who complained that news organizations seldom cover chronic hunger before it is a disaster.

While proponents of industrial agriculture and genetically modified foods use world hunger to justify new, high-yield technologies, Hertsgaard said that hunger usually has more to do with poverty than with production.

“The Green Revolution is biased in favor of people with capital,” he said. “As [agricultural] outputs become larger, [food] distribution becomes more uneven.”

Orville Schell, dean of the university’s journalism school and author of the 1983 book “Modern Meat: Antibiotics, Hormones and the Pharmaceutical Farm” shared a similar view.

“There is a paradox at work in the food industry,” Schell said. “We’ve made incredible progress, yet we take a step forward and surprise ourselves by raising a host of new problems.”

A final question from the audience on Monday threw the panel: “When was the last time you ate at a fast food restaurant?”

Berkeley’s Waters hemmed and hawed at the microphone, but finally relented. “It was a bit of a research project,” she said, explaining how she was late for a conference in Salina, Kan., and only had 10 minutes to eat. “I just went through the drive-through, took my order to the other side and ate it next to a trash can. I was finished in less than five minutes.”

“Where? Where?” the audience asked.

“It was McDonalds,” Waters confessed. “But it was over eight years ago.”

Schlosser, on the other hand, is not tempted by McDonalds.

“I go to In-&-Out Burger,” he said. “The fries are good. The shakes are good. And the religious messages on the cups are very entertaining.”

NEW ORLEANS — Cajun fishing towns cleared out, Navy ships steamed out for the open sea and inland hotels began filling up as Tropical Storm Isidore strengthened Tuesday and headed toward the Gulf Coast.

The storm, which left two people dead and 300,000 homeless in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, moved back over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to hit Louisiana or Mississippi with hurricane force as early as Wednesday night.

Emergency officials in Florida were watching another tropical storm, Lili, which has killed three people in the Caribbean and could strike the southern part of the state over the weekend.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Isidore was about 550 miles south of New Orleans and heading north at around 7 mph. Its sustained winds, which had fallen to well below hurricane strength of 74 mph as the storm moved over land, rose to 60 mph and were expected to strengthen.

Ahead of the storm, bands of rain lashed parts of the Gulf Coast.

The forecast track put the eye of the storm over rural Terrebonne Parish, southeast of New Orleans, early Thursday. Storm advisories stretched from Jefferson and Orange counties in Texas to Destin, Fla.

Grand Isle, an island resort south of New Orleans that has just one two-lane escape route, was placed under a mandatory evacuation order at midday Tuesday. Many of the town’s 1,500 residents were already on their way out.

In Terrebonne Parish, vulnerable coastal towns including Chauvin, Grand Caillou and Theriot were ordered evacuated. Officials expected an exodus of about 2,000 people.

While early projections indicated Isidore could come ashore as a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, Tuesday’s forecasts were for a less powerful Category 1 hurricane — with wind in excess of 80 mph.

Still, ships pulled out of the Naval Station at Pascagoula, Miss., for safer waters, and hotels north of coastal areas were swamped with reservations.

“We’ve been having to turn people away,” said Denise Sullivan at the front desk of the Ramada Inn in Jackson, Miss.

Officials along the Texas coast were battling Isidore-caused swells of 12 feet, and expected them to grow as the storm approaches. On South Padre Island, overnight tides swamped an emergency sand wall and water rushed onto streets.

New Orleans, the nation’s biggest city with a low point below sea level, prepared for heavy rain by closing flood walls, putting all pumping stations in full operation, sandbagging roads near the water and even asking hospitals to delay elective surgeries.

Mayor Ray Nagin said he was not ready to order or recommend evacuations.

City Council passed a measure Tuesday guaranteeing continued shelter for the 69 residents of the UA Homes left homeless by an Aug. 26 fire.

Council authorized up to $150,000 to the subsidized housing complex Resources for Community Development (RCD). The loan will allow RCD to continue housing residents in nearby hotels even if repairs to the building on 1040 University Ave. are delayed.

Since Red Cross disaster relief aid expired on Sept. 11, RCD has spent $42,000 taking care of residents at local hotels and other RCD complexes. RCD has a cash reserve to cover hotel bills until the second week of October, the date repairs at UA Homes are expected to be completed, Williams said. However, if the construction, which started last week, becomes delayed, RCD will not have enough money to support residents.

The four-story building, founded to provide shelter and care to homeless people, burned after a pile of clothes accidentally caught fire, city officials said.

Drew King of the city’s housing department said it is in Berkeley’s interest to keep RCD funded.

“They have offered programs that are very valuable for us and provide housing that is very hard for a city to operate,” King said.

Williams said that to maintain some cash reserves, he expected that RCD would apply for a $40,000 loan, approximately half the repair costs, assuming that construction is completed on time.

Building repairs are scheduled to proceed in two phases. Phase one, scheduled to be finished by the second week of October, will repair all but the six most damaged rooms. Because there were six vacancies before the fire, all of the residents will be able to return when that work is completed.

Phase two will repair the parts of the building most damaged by the fire and is expected to be finished within four months.

In addition to free accommodations, RCD has worked with city agencies to make sure that the residents are given food and transportation passes to those who work. Because the hotel rooms do not have kitchens, many of the residents who don’t qualify for food stamps were concerned that they would not be able to eat.

Terms of the loan have not been discussed, but King said the money would come from the city’s housing trust fund.

NEW YORK - The faces said it all. No beaming smiles, only frozen stares. The 252 performers standing on stage at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City had just completed the world premiere of John Adams' “On the Transmigration of Souls,” a meditative tribute to the victims, survivors and heroes of Sept. 11.

The 25-minute composition, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its season-opening week, took the performers and audience on a solemn journey of pain, uncertainty, hope, loss, yearning, remembrance and resolution.

“There are two eruptions of emotion, although not necessarily representing the collapse of the twin towers. I didn't want to turn it into some kind of musical documentary,” Adams said from his home in Berkeley.

Besides the philharmonic, the huge ensemble, led by Lorin Maazel, included children's and adult choruses, two pianos, celesta, two harps and an array of speakers that engulfed the audience in a dizzying cityscape. Last week’s concert began with the recorded sounds of the whoosh of traffic, footsteps and a siren.

Then a young boy slowly repeated “miss-ing, miss-ing,” before the hushed mantra of names started a sanctified roll call of unwitting martyrs. Moments later, the adult chorus entered, “re-mem ... re-mem-ber,” and repeated it two dozen times.

The text, compiled by Adams, also quotes from missing persons' posters: “She looks so full of life in the picture.” Family comments published in The New York Times' “Portraits of Grief are also included: “The mother says: ‘He used to call me everyday. I'm just waiting.’ ” And a cellphone call from a flight attendant on the plane that crashed into the first tower is addressed: “I see water and buildings.”

“It really has almost nothing to do with the violence or the cause of the event. My piece really is a piece of remembrance and reflection - it's really about loss and grief,” Adams said.

Adams said he was trying to create an aural space for reflection rather than a requiem. “You know when you go into those great cathedrals in Europe?” he said. “Most people are quiet. But still, there's always sound. You hear people walking, and you hear city noises and I sort of wanted to bring that kind of feeling into the hall and into the piece.”

The philharmonic, which began its season this month under new music director Maazel, commissioned the piece with financial support from an anonymous “longtime New York family.

“It's our way of saying it's an event we would like to commemorate and we would like to continue to commemorate,” Maazel said in an interview shortly after enlisting Adams last January.

Adams, one of America's most successful classical composers, has written operas about President Richard Nixon's trip to China and the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. He had only six months to finish this one.

“I had very conflicting impressions when I was asked to do the piece,” he recalled. “I was very wary of having another piece on the pile of what's going to be going on in New York during that (first anniversary) month. I just wondered whether maybe the best thing to do was just be silent because I really feel that the country has just been overly saturated with imagery and continuous imploring to remember. On the other hand, I felt that it was something that I had a duty to do as an American artist, that it was something incumbent on me to accept.”

After the final fadeout at Avery Fisher Hall, Maazel and the Philharmonic's musicians, the New York Choral Artists and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus stood stoically and the audience quietly applauded. As Adams entered the stage during subsequent curtain calls, the response warmed, crescendoing into an enthusiastic ovation.

RICHMOND – Police say an argument between teenagers on Monday night resulted in two children and an animal control officer being bitten by a pair of pit bulls.

At 5:30 p.m., police say they received calls that a number of girls were arguing in front of a house in the 300 block of South 23rd Avenue.

Witnesses told police that one of the sisters went inside a house and retrieved a 4-year-old male pit bull during the disagreement. When she returned, the dog bit her and then lunged at a 12-year-old boy who was not involved in the argument.

When an animal control officer was called to take the dog into custody, a female pit bull terrier and her litter were discovered. Police say the animal control officer suffered a minor bite wound from the female dog while confiscating the two adult dogs and 11 puppies.

The boy's injuries were not life threatening but he was taken to Doctor's Medical Center in San Pablo. The girl may have been transported to Kaiser Hospital.

Police are investigating the incident as an assault with a deadly weapon.

OAKLAND – An attorney for one of three former Oakland police officers on trial for criminal misconduct began his attempt Tuesday to chip away at the credibility of a key prosecution witness in Alameda County Superior Court.

The witness, former rookie Oakland Police Officer Keith Batt, spent his third day on the stand. Deputy District Attorney David Hollister used two full days last week in his direct examination of Batt and wrapped up his questioning this morning.

In what is referred to as the “Riders” case, Clarence “Chuck” Mabanag, 37, Matthew Hornung, 30, and Jude Siapno, 34, are charged with filing false police reports and conspiring to hide their misdeeds, including alleged beatings.

OAKLAND – Preliminary statistics culled from U.S. Department of Justice records show that Oakland ranked fourth last year in the number of homicides among cities approximately the same size and could place higher next year given the rash of recent killings.

Out of 11 American cities with populations between 350,000 and 450,000, Oakland – which has a population of 406,000 – ranked below St. Louis, Mo., with 148 homicides, Atlanta, Ga., with 144, and Kansas City, Mo., with 103. Oakland reported 84 homicides in 2001.

The numbers come from a preliminary report released in June of this year that compiled data from cities with populations larger than 100,000.

Franklin Zimring, head of criminal justice research at the UC Berkeley, said in an interview tuesday that Oakland could fare worse in 2002 given the increased number of slayings so far this year.

“If you use 2001 as a benchmark, if no one else changes, Oakland is on track to move from No. 4 to No. 3 because Oakland already has 85 (homicides) so far this year,” Zimring said.

The researcher said Oakland's demography is to blame.

“Big cities with a concentration of African American ghetto areas and substantial Latino poverty areas create a recipe for being at the high end of homicide distribution,” Zimring said.

The professor said that during the late 1990s, California experienced a 55 percent drop in homicide rates, a phenomenon that policy experts and researchers have yet to understand.

“It's going to take serious scholars at least half a decade to figure out why the 90s experienced the longest and deepest decline in violent crime the United States had seen since World War II,” he said.

Zimring said there are other cities with the approximate size and diversity as Oakland that have higher homicide rates. But because Oakland mirrored the sustained statewide downturn in killings during the 1990s, this latest upward trend in violent deaths – hitting 85 as of Monday night – is a great disappointment.

“We now expect better,” Zimring explained.

The report from the Department of Justice shows murder rates rose 3.9 percent around the nation overall.

Among California cities, Los Angeles and Richmond ranked first and second, respectively, with Oakland third for homicides per capita.

SAN LEANDRO – A rookie Oakland police officer is set to be arraigned Friday on charges that he allegedly had sexual relations with two high school students, police said.

Efrain Cintron, 22, of San Francisco, is charged with four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, three counts of oral copulation with a minor, and three counts of penetration with a foreign object of a minor, all felonies, police said. He is also charged with three misdemeanor counts of inappropriate touching of a minor.

San Leandro police Lt. Steve Pricco said the alleged victims are two girls, one 16 and the other 17, both students at San Leandro High School.

The investigation began Sept. 2 when the 16-year-old girl approached police.

“She was very uncomfortable with the relationship,” Pricco said. The 17-year-old has not cooperated with investigators.

The alleged crimes occurred between July 20 and Aug. 24 at different locations in San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hayward and San Francisco.

According to Pricco, Cintron and the two victims were “mutual friends” who had known one another for a few years.

Pricco said Cintron graduated from the Oakland Police Academy within the last several months and has been placed on administrative leave.

SANTA CLARA – A Santa Clara elementary school hopes to change the world tuesday with one big handshake, or at least break a world record.

Montague Elementary School will host family, friends, public officials and local professional athletes in an attempt to make the Guinness Book of Records for the largest group handshake and, in the process, promote world peace.

After lunch this afternoon, the crowd will gather in a circle on the school's outdoor playing field, join hands as they say a peace pledge, and then shake on it.

When Montague officially sets the record, they will challenge schools in the local area and abroad to take their pledge and shake on it, hopefully breaking the record again and perpetuating the pledge of peace.

“The goal of all of this is more meaningful than just a record pledge and handshake,” said Mark Austin, a parent involved in the event.

Initially, the school wanted to host a group hug, but later found that a theme park on the East Coast had recently set that record.

The event will take place at 1 p.m. at the elementary school, located at 750 Laurie Ave. in Santa Clara.

SF most expensive

rental market in country

SANTA CRUZ — Four of the nation’s six least affordable rental markets are in Northern California, and the smallest on the list is Santa Cruz.

A study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C., said you would have to earn at least $24.96 an hour to afford the median two-bedroom apartment.

The study, titled “Out of Reach: Rental Housing for America’s Poor Families,” also found a minimum wage earner would have to work 145 hours a week to afford the same apartment. That leaves a generous 23 hours a week to eat, sleep and commute.

The No. 1 least affordable community was San Francisco, where the study said it would take an hourly wage of $37.31 to afford the median two-bedroom apartment.

San Jose is second on the list, with Oakland at No. 4.

The Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., area was third and Boston was fifth.

Woman charged in car death

of 8-week-old grandson

SAN LEANDRO – A 48-year-old woman whose infant grandson died last month after spending eight hours inside her parked car in San Leandro has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, police said.

Bretta Kendall of Oakland was charged Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned at the Hayward Hall of Justice on Wednesday.

“It appears to have been an unfortunate accident but still it resulted in the death of an 8-week-old,”San Leandro police Lt. Steve Pricco said tuesday. “She had responsibility for the care and welfare of that child.''

Pricco said that on Aug. 22, Kendall apparently forgot to drop the boy off at a baby sitter before going to work at the Albertsons distribution headquarters on Marina Boulevard. Kendall had only had custody of 8-week-old Marcello Alfonso Kendall for about two weeks at the time.

Kendall arrived at work at 8:30 a.m., and because she brought her lunch, did not leave until 4:30 p.m., police said.

When she emerged at the end of the day and approached her car, which was locked and had the windows rolled up, she noticed the car seat sitting directly behind the driver's seat and then saw Marcello, who had lost consciousness, police said. She brought the baby inside, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

The Alameda County Coroner's Bureau has not yet determined the cause of death, though Pricco said Marcello probably died of heat or dehydration.

Pricco said Kendall has been cooperating with investigators and is “very remorseful” over her grandson's death.

Over the last year, two other cases of children dying after being forgotten in locked cars have been reported in the Bay Area.

In July, San Martin father Brian Gilbert was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the July 24, 2001, death of his 5-month-old son, Kyle, who was forgotten inside a locked car. Gilbert, 25, faces a possible sentence of four years.

SAN JOSE — Democratic Gov. Gray Davis postponed a second fund-raiser amid sharpened attacks from Republican opponent Bill Simon slamming him for raising money from special interests while considering legislation important to those groups.

Davis was set to attend a town hall forum in Palo Alto and a $10,000-a-person tech fund-raiser on Tuesday, but postponed both events on Monday, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The TechNet fund-raising event in Palo Alto, co-sponsored by venture capitalist John Doerr and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, was organized at the same time that the tech industry has been lobbying Davis to veto legislation that would impose new fees on companies to pay for recycling environmentally hazardous computer parts, the Mercury said.

Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar said the governor postponed the events only because he is pressed for time to sign or veto hundreds of bills.

He called the report “speculation.”

“I’m not sure how many people are really interested in that legislation,” Salazar said. “TechNet is not a company, it is a group of activists in the Silicon Valley some of whom are involved in the tech industry. TechNet has been very supportive of the governor in the past, they’ve held events for us in the past.”

Last week, Davis canceled a fund-raiser organized by Rod Diridon, the governor’s appointee to chair the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority.

The $1,000-a-person event at Diridon’s home was scheduled to take place the day after the governor signed a bill that will put a $10 billion bond measure on the 2004 ballot. If approved, the measure would pave the way for the state’s high-speed rail line.

The event was canceled after it became public that Diridon had sent e-mails seeking contributions from executives who “will build, operate and maintain the system.”

Simon went on the offensive Tuesday morning over the new fund-raising report.

“Gov. Davis is in bed with moneyed special interests on a daily basis with his fund-raising activity,” Simon said after a campaign stop in Sunnyvale.

SAN FRANCISCO — Next month, some of the best minds in stem cell science will gather at a conference in San Diego to exchange notes, opinions and suggestions on how to invigorate a promising but struggling research field.

Executives at the few companies hoping someday to turn the embryonic technology into profitable therapies will be out in full force. Venture capitalists, patent attorneys and even a representative from the President’s Council on Bioethics also plan to attend the two-day conference, organized by the Strategic Research Institute.

Journalists, however, are banned.

“I instituted this years ago as some members of your profession have caused irreparable ... damage with speaker relationships and in some cases their companies over coverage,” Strategic Research executive Mark Alexay wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “Hence no coverage. Over and out.”

Conference organizers said some speakers also may be presenting sensitive research data to their peers that they don’t yet want publicized.

“Furthermore, many speakers will not give their presentation if they are aware of press in the room,” Strategic Research head Stuart Williams wrote in an e-mail.

Strategic Research executives declined to discuss the matter over the telephone.

As a private company, New York-based Strategic Research has no obligation to open its doors to the media. At least one scheduled speaker, David Ayares of PPL Therapeutics of Dolly the cloned sheep fame, said he plans to present data he does not want publicized.

Still, many of those attending the conference were surprised with the conference organizer’s policy, which some viewed as a public relations mistake. Even conference chairman Dr. Doros Platika, president and chief executive of Cambridge, Mass.-based Centagenetix, Inc. said he was unaware of the press ban until notified by a reporter.

Religious conservatives and biotechnology foes oppose human embryonic stem cell research as immoral because days-old embryos must be destroyed in the process. Banning media coverage of the conference will only fuel opposition to the research, some conference attendees said.

“It’s likely they are trying to keep a low profile until they can announce something positive,” said Daniel McConchie of the Christian-based Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, which opposes human embryonic stem cell research.

“I can understand a ban could encourage people to speak their minds, but this is an area of extreme interest in the media, the public and at the presidential level,” said Joel Martin, a partner with the San Diego venture capital firm Forward Ventures. “Restricting the press raises the impression that something improper is being discussed, and that’s not going to be case.”

Martin is scheduled to join a conference panel of fellow venture capitalists discussing the commercial possibilities of the technology.

Martin and others believe opening the event to the press would do more good than harm for a field facing significant scientific, financial and legal obstacles.

Last year, the Bush administration limited federal funding of human embryonic stem cells to 78 stem cell lines controlled by 14 different government-approved labs. But only a handful of the approved stem cell lines are fit for research, with demand far outstripping supply.

The business of stem cells also is suffering.

Menlo Park-based Geron Inc., the one publicly traded company developing human embryonic stem cells, laid off a third of its staff in June. Geron’s stock price hovers around $4 a share, near its 52-week low and far off its 52-week high of $14.48.

Privately held San Diego-based Cythera recently settled a year-long dispute over ownership of the nine government-approved stem cell lines in its freezer, a fight that stopped scientific development.

Cloning company PPL early this month announced it was closing its Scotland stem cell research division after failing to find a buyer for it.

DAVIS – Just in time for the fall harvest, the University of California has published a guide that could help farmers and ranchers solve each others' problems.

For years, rice growers have struggled to find a way to get rid of rice straw, an environmentally challenging waste product.

At the same time, beef cattle producers have been looking for a low-cost supplemental feed.

“Feeding Rice Straw to Cattle,” written by Northern California advisors to the University of California Cooperative Extension, examines how rice straw can be used as cattle feed.

Topics covered include the nutritional value or rice straw, how to take lab samples, how much to feed to cattle and how to keep the overall costs down.

“Feed is the largest single cost of producing beef,” explained Nader, a Sutter/Yuba and Butte counties advisor to the University of California program who helped author the report.

“Producers with access to alternative feeds have an economic advantage, but these types of feeds present unique challenges. Rice straw should be used only as part of the forage, not as a complete ration.”

In the past, rice straw has been fed to cattle with mixed success, the team of advisors said. Their publication explains the road to successful use of rice straw as feed built on three principles, Nader added.

First, know the nutritional quality of the rice straw, as it varies greatly. Second, determine the nutritional requirements of the cattle to be fed. And third, balance a ration to determine whether rice straw will meet your situation economically.

The guide is currently available online at

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8079.pdf

Opinion

Editorials

WASHINGTON – Iraq's bioweapons program that President Bush wants to eradicate got its start with help from Uncle Sam two decades ago, according to government records getting new scrutiny in light of the discussion of war against Iraq.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent samples directly to several Iraqi sites that U.N. weapons inspectors determined were part of Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program, CDC and congressional records from the early 1990s show. Iraq had ordered the samples, claiming it needed them for legitimate medical research.

The CDC and a biological sample company, the American Type Culture Collection, sent strains of all the germs Iraq used to make weapons, including anthrax, the bacteria that make botulinum toxin and the germs that cause gas gangrene, the records show. Iraq also got samples of other deadly pathogens, including the West Nile virus.

The transfers came in the 1980s, when the United States supported Iraq in its war against Iran. They were detailed in a 1994 Senate Banking Committee report and a 1995 follow-up letter from the CDC to the Senate.

The exports were legal at the time and approved under a program administered by the Commerce Department.

“I don't think it would be accurate to say the United States government deliberately provided seed stocks to the Iraqis' biological weapons programs,” said Jonathan Tucker, a former U.N. biological weapons inspector.

“But they did deliver samples that Iraq said had a legitimate public health purpose, which I think was naive to believe, even at the time.”

The disclosures put the United States in the uncomfortable position of possibly having provided the key ingredients of the weapons America is considering waging war to destroy, said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. Byrd entered the documents into the Congressional Record this month.

“Are we, in fact, now facing the possibility of reaping what we have sown?” Byrd asked Rumsfeld after reading parts of a Newsweek article on the transfers.

“I have never heard anything like what you've read, I have no knowledge of it whatsoever, and I doubt it,” Rumsfeld said. He later said he would ask the Defense Department and other government agencies to search their records for evidence of the transfers.

Invoices included in the documents read like shopping lists for biological weapons programs. One 1986 shipment from the Virginia-based American Type Culture Collection included three strains of anthrax, six strains of the bacteria that make botulinum toxin and three strains of the bacteria that cause gas gangrene. Iraq later admitted to the United Nations that it had made weapons out of all three.

The company sent the bacteria to the University of Baghdad, which U.N. inspectors concluded had been used as a front to acquire samples for Iraq's biological weapons program.

The CDC, meanwhile, sent shipments of germs to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies involved in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. It sent samples in 1986 of botulinum toxin and botulinum toxoid — used to make vaccines against botulinum toxin — directly to the Iraqi chemical and biological weapons complex at al-Muthanna, the records show.

Berkeley High School students will not be getting gourmet organic lunches anymore.

Students have gone back to fast food and pizza because, school officials said, students showed little interest in the specially delivered meals.

Last year, Berkeley High invited local restaurateurs to sell their goods on campus. Soon, famed chef Alice Waters was serving up organic pork tacos and bike messengers brought in hormone-free chicken sandwiches.

School officials hoped students would eat healthier and want to spend their lunch break on campus, but the idea never really caught on, and the number of meals consumed at the school’s food court dropped 33 percent.

School officials said part of the problem was that the food court where the school served the meals was hidden away. The school cafeteria had been unusable since the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. And students like to get off campus during lunch.

The school could not sell enough lunches at $3 or $4 each – the typical price of school meals – to cover the cost of the fancy foods. Plus, students said nearby fast food chains and delis have larger portions and cost less.

But Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Michele Lawrence is hoping to revive the program, and hopes the new cafeteria, which is expected to open next school year, will help.

Cory Lidle (8-10, 3.89) will pitch out of the bullpen in the series against the Twins.

“That’s something we didn’t do the last couple of years. We’ll change it up and see what happens,” Zito said of the three-man rotation. “We’ll have Lidle coming out of the ’pen, and he’ll be back in the rotation if we make it to the next round.”

Last year, the Athletics lost the division series in five games against the New York Yankees after winning the first two games behind Mulder and Hudson.

Berkeley will celebrate its seventh annual “How Berkeley Can You Be?” parade and festival Sunday.

The streets will begin bursting with Berkeley spirit at 11 a.m. when the parade begins at the corner of California Street and University Avenue. The parade route runs up University, onto Shattuck Avenue, then down Center Street, culminating at Civic Center Park, where festivities will continue until 5 p.m.

“It’s about Berkeley being represented in all of its diversity,” said John Solomon, founder and organizer of the event.

Outsiders often misconstrue the celebration as just an off-the-wall parade. But the event includes all of the city’s cultural, political and ethic groups. “It’s not just about wackos running around the streets naked,” Solomon said.

One of the highlights of the parade will be more than 80 cars from ArtCar Fest. Also watch for People Eatin’ Them Animals, Welcome to the AARP with The Hot Flashes and the Synchronized Nap Team, and The Chicken Ranch on Wheels. Grand Marshall this year will be artist Michael Masley, a long-time Berkeley street performer whose motto is “conformity can be addictive, so beware.”

The festival at Civic Center Park will include live performances of world music, food, dance, and a kids’ area.

“How Berkeley Can You Be” will take place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information call 849-4688 or go to www.howberkeleycanyoube.com.

Following last week’s 10-acre wildfire near the Berkeley-Oakland border, crews are working to douse residents’ anxieties about the fire-prone hills by chopping down trees.

Four acres of eucalyptus, an invasive and fast-burning tree, are being cleared from UC Berkeley-owned land at the top of Claremont Canyon, about a quarter-mile from the Sept. 20 blaze along the ridgeline.

If a tree were to start burning, the grove stands amid a funnel of hot easterly winds that could accelerate a fire into a larger blaze, said Tom Klatt, director of emergency planning for the UC Berkeley Police Department.

“The [current] work is a strategic change in how the forest is going to look,” said Klatt, adding that the new landscape will be less prone to fire. “The benefits will accrue next year and for decades to come.”

Last week’s fire at Claremont Canyon started when a car caught fire in the area of Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Fish Ranch Roak in Oakland. More than 100 firefighters from seven agencies fought for three hours to contain the blaze.

No structures were damaged. However, two firefighters suffered minor leg injuries.

The Claremont Canyon eucalyptus removal coincides with stepped-up fire monitoring on campus hill property, further vegetation reduction in the Panoramic Hill area and more frequent communication between East Bay fire agencies.

High fire season will end with the first major rainfall, typically in mid-November, fire officials said.

More than 40 cars were splattered with eggs in the Berkeley hills late Monday night, according to residents.

“All up and down our street - there was one egg per car,” said Nancy Mint, who lives on the 400 block of Vincente Avenue.

About a mile southeast on the 700 block of Keeler Avenue, a resident who wished not to be named painted a similar picture.

“There were at least six cars hit by eggs,” she said. “When I called the police Monday morning, they said they had gotten more than 40 complaints.” She said neighbors reported empty egg cartons strewn along local streets.

Police responded to four reported cases of car eggings Monday morning, but do not have any suspects.

“If eggs are affixed to a car for a long period of time they can damage paint jobs,” Kusmiss said.

Mintz was able to hose her car clean, but did notice a strange phenomenon.

“None off the eggs had yolks,” she said, guessing that local animals sucked out the nutrient-laden core before residents awoke Monday.

n Stolen laser

Three men stole a $15,000 laser used for underground construction from a truck that was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Cedar Street and Cornell Avenue, police said. At approximately 2:10 p.m. Tuesday, three men pulled up next to the victim who was driving a delivery truck. While the victim was stopped at the red light, the men opened the unlocked truck, took the laser and sped away.

n Brawl

A large fight erupted at a nightclub on the 2200 block of Shattuck Avenue at 1:36 a.m. Sunday Morning, police said. Police broke up the fight and ordered the club closed for the evening. They did not make any arrests.

n Unknown Gunfire

Four teens were seen shooting an unknown type of gun at beer bottles on the 100 block of Seawall drive at 11:05 p.m. Tuesday night. According to police, a witness saw the shooting and assumed the suspects were firing a pellet gun. Police arrived after the four suspects had driven away and did not see evidence of and pellet fire or any other type of ammunition. The suspects escaped in a 1990s white Pontiac Sunbird with a black bra over the front of the car.

LA VERNE — A wildfire in the foothills above Los Angeles jumped from 8,000 acres to 12,000 acres in just a few hours Tuesday, sending smoke pouring over the sprawling metropolitan area and triggering public health warnings.

The fire, spread across 11 miles of the San Gabriel Mountains, has destroyed 44 cabins and homes and threatens hundreds of others. Flames raged unchecked as firefighters worked in rugged canyon terrain against erratic winds and triple-digit temperatures.

Some two dozen aircraft dropped water and fire retardant on the fire, which authorities said had the potential to grow to 20,000 acres.

Fear of new fires led officials to close the 650,000-acre Angeles National Forest, which includes the mountains, to recreation.

Conditions were so hot and dry around the fire 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles that brittle chaparral and other brush virtually exploded in flames when hit by sparks.

“It’s whompin’,” Drake said.

The fire threatened upscale homes in La Verne, San Dimas and other suburbs.

“It’s very stressful. You work all your life and to see it threatened to this degree,” said George Villegas, 37, an insurance salesman who took a day off work to keep watch on his $600,000 home. His belongings were packed into his three cars and his wife and two sons were staying with relatives.

Other residents described flames that towered 50 feet in the air and jumped between ridges.

Voluntary evacuations were called for at least 500 homes and 1,000 people. A mandatory evacuation was ordered for 77 recreational cabins in San Dimas Canyon, and more than 200 youngsters were taken out of two juvenile detention camps.